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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California, 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894, 
zAccessions  No.S^^^^Mf-      Class  No, 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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GRAHAM    LECTURES 


THE 


Otwnstittttion  of  %  ^nmm  Saul 


SIX   LECTURES 


DELIVERED     AT     1^  0«-   RRl)^aK  L  Y  N     INSTITU 
BROOKLYN,    N.    Y. 


TE, 


BY 


RICHARD   S.  STORRS,  Jr.,  D.D. 

^^  Of  THB*^^ 

[TJ5I7BRSIT7] 

NEW  YORK: 
ROBERT    CARTER    &    BROTHERS, 

530    BROADW  AY. 

1857. 


# 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 
EOLLIN     SANFOED, 

President  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute. 

la  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


JTlir^^ 


STEEEOTYPEDBY  PBINTEDBY 

TnOMA8B.BMITir,  E.O.JEXKIN8, 

82  &  84  Beekman-street,  N.  Y  28  Frankfort-street,  N.  Y. 


m 


^ 


GRAHAM  LECTURES: 


ON      THE 


POWER,  WISDOM   AND   GOODNESS 
OF    GOD, 


# 


AS  MANIFESTED  IiX  HIS  WORKS. 
*  VOLUME  I. 

PUBLISHED     BY 
THE    BROOKLYN    INSTITUTE, 


CONTENTS 


PAGES 

HISTORICAL  PREFACE, 5-12 

THE  HUMAN  SOUL, 

ENDOWED   WITH   PERSONAL   LIFE, 17-63 

ENDOWED   WITH   FACULTIES   FOR   KNOWLEDGE,  .      65-110 

ENDOWED   WITH   FACULTIES   FOR   VIRTUE,        .       .       .    111-163 
ENDOWED      WITH       FACULTIES      FOR       BENEFICENT 

OPERATION, 165-21H 

ENDOWED^  WITH   FACULTIES    FOR    HAPPINESS,      .       .    219-274 
ENDOWED   WITH    FACULTIES    FOR    IMMORTAL    PRO- 
GRESS,          275-338 


[TJHIVBRSITr 
HISTORICAL   PREFACE. 


In  publishing  this,  the  first  course  of  Graham  Lectures, 
delivered  at  the  Brooklyn  Institute,  it  appears  proper  to 
give  the  public  some  account  of  the  Institute  itself,  and 
of  the  origin  of  the  lectures  to  be  delivered  on  Sunday 
evening^,  as  provided  for  in  the  will  of  the  late  Augustus 
Graham,  on  the  "  Wisdom,  Power  and  Goodness  of  God, 
as  manifested  in  his  works." 

In  the  summer  of  1823,  some  gentlemen,  among  whom 
were  Augustus  Graham,  Robert  Snow,  and  Alden  Spoon- 
er,  met  at  Stevenson's  Hotel  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing a  Free  Library  for  the  apprentices  in  the  city  of 
Brooklyn.  After  several  meetings,  they  adopted  a  con- 
stitution, in  which  they  expressed  themselves  as  "de- 
sirous of  extending  the  benefits  of  knowledge  to  that 
portion  of  our  youth  who  are  engaged  in  learning  the 
mechanic  arts,  thereby  to  qualify  them  for  becoming  use- 
ful and  respectable  members  of  society  ;"  and  also,  "  of 
collecting  and  establishing  a  library  for  the  benefit  of  ap- 
prentices." They  issued  an  eloquent  circular  "to  the 
citizens  of  Brooklyn,"  in  September;  in  which  they 
solicited  donations  of  books  and  maps,  with  pecuniary 
assistance,  to  enable* them  to  spread  before  the  rising  gen- 
eration the  stores  of  knowledge,  and  the  means  of  men- 


VI  HISTORICAL     PREFACE. 

tal  improvement.  They  urged  their  claims  on  the  con- 
siderations, "  that  the  wealth  and  happiness  of  a  country 
rest  on  the  immovable  basis  of  industry  and  intellectual 
acquirements/'  and  that  "the  great  Author  of  nature 
distributes  talents  without  distinction,  among  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  society ;"  they  therefore  desire  the  means 
of  bringing  forth  the  shining  ore  of  genius  from  obscurity ; 
"  to  develope,  perhaps,  a  Franklin,  a  Rittenhouse,  or  a 
Fulton,  who  may  themselves  make  new  discoveries  in  the 
principles  of  science,  extend  the  boundaries  of  knowledge, 
and  shed  lustre  on  our  country  and  benefit  on  mankind  " 

They  were  incorporated  by  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  November  20th,  1824,  under  the  name  of  the 
"  Brooklyn  Apprentices'  Library  Association ;"  and  soon 
after  leased  a  plot  of  ground,  on  the  corner  of  Henry  and 
Cranberry-streets,  on  which  to  erect  a  building  for  the 
purposes  of  the  Library.  The  corner-stone  of  this  build- 
ing was  laid  on  the  4th  of  July  1825,  with  Masonic 
ceremonies,  by  the  great  and  good  Lafayette,  amid  a 
large  concourse  of  our  citizens. 

This  building  was  erected,  and  the  first  course  of 
Lectures  was  commenced  on  the  15th  of  March  1827, 
by  Professor  Dana,  of  the  Medical  CoUege  of  New  York. 
This  course  of  Lectures  he  did  not  live  to  finish  ;  hav- 
ing departed  this  life,  after  a  short  illness,  in  the  early 
part  of  April,  universally  regretted.  But  his  talents 
and  amiable  manners  had  already  endeared  him,  when 
he  died,  to  very  many  of  his  hearers;  and  a  general 
interest  had  been  manifested  in  his  instructions. 

The  Library  building  was  afterwards  sold  to  the  city, 
for  public  offices,  &c.,  and  the  Library  removed  to  the 
Lyceum  buildings  in  Washington-street.     In  May  1842, 


HISTORICAL     PREFACE.  VU 

the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  transferred  all  their 
specimens,  fixtures,  and  other  Society  property,  to  the 
Apprentices'  Library  Association,  for  safe  keeping. 

The  success  of  this  Institution  had  gradually  increased. 
Sometimes  in  a  state  of  prosperity,  at  other  times  de- 
pressed and  neglected,  its  importance  and  utility  became 
more  and  more  obvious,  and  it  evidently  grew  in  favor 
with  our  citizens.  Its  permanence  and  usefulness  were 
at  length  cemented  by  the  munificence  of  our  generous 
and  noble  fellow-citizen,  Augustus  Graham,  who  had 
long  felt  a  Hvely  interest  in  the  Institution,  and  who  at 
the  time  of  which  we  speak  was  its  President.  In  a 
conversation  with  Mr.  James  Walters,  he  stated  that  he 
had  made  provision  in  his  will  for  the  purchase  of  the 
Lyceum  building,  if  it  could  be  had  for  20,000  doUars ; 
and,  if  not,  for  the  erection  of  a  building  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  Apprentices'  Library  Association.  Mr. 
Walters  suggested  that  it  would  be  preferable  to  purchase 
the  building  at  once,  as  it  probably  could  be  had  cheaper 
then  than  at  a  future  period.  He  urged  upon  Mr.  Gra- 
ham the  propriety  of  making  this  disbursement  under  his 
own  supervision,  as  reliance  could  not  always  be  placed 
upon  executors  for  carrying  out  the  wishes  of  testators, 
especially  when  large  sums  of  money  were  to  be  distrib- 
uted. Mr.  Graham,  after  thinking  of  this  suggestion  for 
a  few  days,  authorized  Mr.  Walters  to  ascertain  what  the 
building  could  be  purchased  for.  He  did  so,  and  learned 
that  it  could  be  had  for  18,500  doUars.  For  this  sum 
the  purchase  was  made,  and  the  lots  and  building  were 
conveyed  to  the  Association ;  though  they  had  cost  origi- 
nally 35,000  doUars.  There  was  a  mortgage  of  12,000 
doUars  on  the  buUding,  which  remained;   Mr.  Graham 


Vm  HISTORICAL     PREFACE. 

paying  down  6,500  dollars,  and  expending  another  1,000 
dollars  in  repairs.  To  cover  these  last  two  items,  a 
mortgage  was  executed  to  Mr.  Graham  by  the  Associa- 
tion for  7,500  dollars ;  both  mortgages  to  be  eventually 
cancelled  from  his  estate. 

In  April  1843,  an  amended  charter  was  obtained  from 
the  Legislature,  for  the  Association,  which  now  took  the 
name  of  The  Brooklyn  Institute.  Under  this  name,  and 
with  the  advantage  of  a  central  and  convenient  building, 
the  Institute  continued  to  prosper.  Lectures  were  given 
by  the  best  talent  of  our  country;  exhibitions  of  paintings, 
fruit,  flowers,  &c.,  were  opened;  a  Board  of  Natural  His- 
tory was  established ;  and  the  Library  diffused  informa- 
tion and  amusement  throughout  the  community. 

The  4th  of  July  1848,  was  a  day  to  be  remembered 
with  grateful  feelings,  by  the  friends  of  the  Institute ;  as 
on  that  day  the  Board  of  Directors,  Trustees,  and  friends 
of  the  Institute,  were  invited  to  meet  Mr.  Graham  at  the 
Directors'  room,  to  receive  at  his  hands  the  completion 
of  the  donation  of  the  Institute  building.  A  meeting 
was  accordingly  held,  and  Mr.  Cyrus  P.  Smith,  on  behalf 
of  Mr.  Graham,  read  the  following  communication  : 

"  To  the  Trustees  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute.  Herewith  I  present  to 
you  the  satisfaction  of  a  bond  and  mortgage,  held  by  me  on  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Institute,  for  the  sum  of  seven  thousand  and  five  hundred 
dollars  ;  and  I  herewith  present  to  you  bonds  and  mortgages  amount- 
ing together  to  the  sum  of  twelve  thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars. 
This  latter  sum  is  to  be  applied  and  appropriated  by  your  Board  to  the 
payment  and  cancelling  of  a  Bond  and  Mortgage  outstanding  on  the 
property  of  the  Institute,  given  to  Mr.  Peabody.  The  bonds  and  mort- 
gages at  this  time  presented  to  you,  constitute  the  cost  of  the  building, 
purchased  in  the  name,  and  for  the  purposes  of  the  Institute,  and  now 
paid  for  by  me,  according  to  my  original  plan,  at  the  time  of  the  pur- 


HISTORICAL     PREFACE.  IX 

cbQe  of  said  premises.  And  I  desire  that  the  sum,  thus  now  presented, 
shall  be  appropriated,  as  soon  as  practicable,  to  the  payment  of  the  out- 
standing mortgage ;  in  order  that  the  premises  may  be  free  from  debt, 
and  the  Institution  from  any  pecuniary  embarrassment. 

"  I  give  this  sum  with  the  injunction  to  your  Board,  that  they  apply, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  youth  and  citizens  of  Brooklyn,  after  paying  the 
salaries  of  the  keeper  and  librarian,  the  fuel,  and  other  incidental  ex- 
penses, the  one-half  of  the  nett  income  from  the  buildings,  by  rent  and 
otherwise,  to  the  increase  and  keeping  in  order  of  the  Free  Library  for 
the  use  of  minors.  The  residue  of  said  rents  and  income,  to  be  applied 
in  part  to  the  expense  of  an  address  to  be  delivered  annually  before  the 
readers  of  the  Library  and  others,  on  the  evening  of  the  22d  of  February, 
the  birthday  of  George  Washington,  on  the  character  of  that  great  man, 
or  of  some  other  benefactor  of  America.  And,  on  the  same  evening,  pre- 
miums shall  be  awarded  and  distributed  to  the  most  meritorious  of  the 
readers  of  the  Free  Library,  as  may  be  evinced  by  application  of  their 
talents,  either  mental  or  mechanical ;  and  for  good  conduct.  The  pre- 
miums shall  consist  of  books,  medals,  or  other  articles  useful  in  their  re- 
spective callings.  The  expense  of  such  premiums  is  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
ftmds  aforesaid ;  and  the  residue  of  such  rents  and.  income  to  be  applied 
to  defray  the  expense  of  so  many  free  lectures,  on  Sunday  evenings,  in 
the  Lecture-room  of  the  Institute,  during  the  Winter  months,  as  the 
funds  will  allow,  on  the  Power,  Wisdom,  and  Goodness  of  God,  as  mani- 
fested in  his  works. 

"  I  desire,  and  so  direct,  that  neither  the  Lecture-room,  nor  any  other 
part  of  the  building,  shall  be  used  for  any  political  purpose,  or  any  ex- 
hibition, or  any  lecture  on  any  subject  having  an  immoral  tendency; 
but  that  the  whole  building,  and  income  thereof,  shall  be  used  and 
appropriated  to  influence  the  moral,  mental,  and  intellectual  condition 
of  the  readers  of  the  Library,  and  the  community  at  large. 

"  Given,  at  the  City  of  Brooklyn,  under  my  hand  and  seal,  this  4th 
day  of  July,  1848. 

"  Augustus  Graham." 

Mr.  Smith  also  read  a  communication  from  Mr.  Gra- 
ham, the  purport  of  which  was,  that  he  gave  30,000  dol- 
lars towards  purchasing  ground  and  erecting  a  building 


X  HISTORICAL     PREFACE. 

for  the  city  Hospital.  He  also  gave  2,000  dollars-  for  a 
Dispensary,  to  be  connected  with  the  Hospital. 

The  day,  the  occasion,  and  the  act  of  this  generous 
benefactor,  who  spoke  not  a  word,  Avere  so  impressive, 
that  feeling  overpowered  every  attempt  to  make  a  suita- 
ble reply  of  gratitude  and  obligation.  Mr.  Robert  Nichols 
said  in  substance,  on  behalf  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Insti- 
tute, "  that  they  accepted  and  would  carry  out  the  trust." 

The  amounts  given,  on  this  occasion,  by  Mr.  Graham, 
were  as  follows : 

To  the  Institute,  mortgages  and  interest, $22,58750 

To  the  Hospital, 30,000 

To  the  Dispensary, 2,000 

Making  together |54,58Y  50 

But  the  days  of  our  noble  benefactor  drew  to  a  close. 
At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  held  No- 
vember 28th,  1851,  Robert  Nichols,  the  Vice  President, 
announced  that  the  venerable  President  of  the  Board, 
Augustus  Graham,  had  passed  from  the  scenes  of  his 
benevolent  labors,  to  the  reward  which  awaits  the  good 
and  just.  In  his  will  he  had  still  further  provided  for 
the  usefulness  of  the  Institute,  as  the  following  extracts 
from  it  will  show  : 


"  I  give  and  bequeath  unto  the  Brooklyn  Institute  aforesaid,  the  sum 
of  Five  Thousand  dollars,  to  be  invested  on  Bond  and  Mortgage  upon  real 
estate,  or  upon  such  security  as  the  Savings  Banks  are  required  to  invest 
monies  therein  deposited ;  and  the  rents,  interest,  income,  and  dividends 
of  the  same  to  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  apparatus,  and  the  estab- 
lishment and  support  of  a  course  of  Free  Lectures  annually,  upon  Me- 
chanics, Natural  Philosophy,  and  Science,  for  the  apprentices  and  other 


HISTORICAL     PREFACE.  XI 

youth  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn ;  to  be  delivered  in  the  basement  Lecture- 
room  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute. 

"  I  give  and  bequeath  to  the  said  Brooklyn  Institute,  the  sum  of  Five 
Thousand  dollars,  to  invest  the  same  in  the  manner  last  aforesaid,  and  to 
apply  the  income  thereof  as  follows :  one  half  thereof  towards  the  sup- 
port of  a  School  of  Design ;  and  the  other  half,  annually,  to  a  specimen 
of  the  Fine  Arts,  to  be  executed  by  a  native  Artist,  and  kept  in  said 
Institute  for  the  pui-pose  of  forming  a  gallery  of  fine  arts.  And  I  also 
give  and  bequeath  to  the  said  Brooklyn  Institute,  the  further  sum  of 
Five' Thousand  dollars,  to  be  invested  as  aforesaid;  the  rents,  interest, 
income  and  dividends  thereof  to  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  speci- 
mens of  Natural  History,  and  in  causing  Free  Lectures  to  be  delivered 
upon  the  subject  of  Natural  History,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  Lecture- 
room  of  said  Institute  ;  and  also  to  the  support  and  benefit  of  the  Natu- 
ral History  department  of  the  Brooklyn^Institute  ;  and  any  surplus  of 
said  income  to  be  applied  to  the  general  objects  of  said  Institute. 

"  And  I  also  give  and  bequeath  to  the  said  Brooklyn  Institute  the  sum 
of  Twelve  Thousand  dollai's,  to  be  invested  as  aforesaid,  and  the  income 
thereof  to  be  applied  to  the  delivery  of  Sunday-evening  Lectures,  at  such 
times  as  may  be  deemed  most  advisable  by  the  Directors  or  Trustees 
thereof,  on  the  Power,  Wisdom,  and  Goodness  of  God,  as  manifested  in 
his  Works." 


It  will  be  perceived  that  it  was  in  accordance  with  the 
latter  clause  of  the  foregoing  extracts  from  the  will  of 
Mr.  Graham,  that  the  lectures  now  published,  were  de- 
livered. And  the  Directors  take  this  occasion  to  express 
their  high  satisfaction  with  the  general  character,  and 
manner  of  delivery  of  this  the  first  of  a  series  of  highly 
important,  interesting  and  useful  lectures  on  an  exalted 
subject.  These  lectures  will  be  continued,  as  directed 
in  the  will  of  Mr.  Graham,  as  suitable  talent  and  culture 
for  the  work  can  be  secured  by  the  Directors. 

Thus  endowed,  by  the  liberality  of  its  late  President, 
we  trust  the  future  course  of  the  Brooklyn  Institute  will 


XU  HISTORICAL     PREFACE. 

still  more  entitle  it  to  the  regard  of  our  fellow-citizens ; 
and  that  it  will  continue  to  be  one  of  the  most  useful  and 
agreeable  features  of  our  pleasant  city 

RoLLiN  Sanford,  President ; 
Peter  G.  Taylor,  Vice  President ; 
John  W.  Pray,  Secretary ; 
Gerrit  Smith,  Treasurer. 

Oliver  Hull,  Samuel  Lounsbury, 

Thomas  Woodward,      Thomas  Rowe, 
Austin  Melvin,  Elias  Lewis,  Jr.,         K  Dire(}tors. 

Ambrose  A.  Lane,       Richard  L.  Wyckoff, 
Daniel  D.  Badger, 

Brooklyn,  September,  1856. 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 


The  following  Lectures  were  prepared  to  be  delivered 
before  a  purely  popular  audience,  assembled  week  by 
week,  on  successive  Sunday  evenings,  in  the  public  Lec- 
ture-room of  the  Brooklyn  Institute.  It  was  necessary 
to  the  purpose  of  the  Lecturer,  and  of  the  Directors,  that 
the  circle  of  themes  embraced  in  Psychology  should  in 
some  measure  be  treated,  in  six  discQurses.  At  the  same 
time,  these  discourses  were  designed  to  leave  special  re- 
ligious impressions  on  the  minds  of  thos^  who  heard 
them.  The  Lectures  should  be  judged,  therefore,  by 
those  who  may  read  them,  with  a  candid  reference 
tp  these  necessary  conditions,  which  invested  and 
governed  them. 

They  are  not  at  aU  scientific  in  their  form,  for  they 
were  not  prepared  for  a  class  of  students.  Their  style 
is  not  that  of  the  essay  or  the  treatise,  for  they  were 
written,  primarily,  to  be  delivered  from  the  desk,  not  to 
be  printed ;  and  a  style  more  fluent,  repetitious,  and  rhe- 
torical than  that  of  the  essay,  was  therefore  desirable. 


Xiv  INTRODUCTORY     NOTE. 

The  writer  was  at  liberty,  he  was  even  required,  to 
avoid  the  special  metaphysical  methods  of  analysis  and 
argument,  and  also  the  particular  philosophical  nomen- 
clature. His  only  aim  was  to  interest  and  instruct,  if  he 
might,  and  coincidently  with  this  to  religiously  impress, 
the  old  and  the  youngs  the  men  and  .the  women,  the  cul- 
tivated and  the  illiterate,  who  should  assemble,  as  oppor- 
tunity and  inclination  might  prompt,  on  each  Sunday 
evening.  And  this  aim  he  did  what  he  could  to  realize, 
amid  manifold  cares. 

H^  is  happy  to  know  that  some  of  those  who  attended 
upon  the  Lectures  felt  themselves  interested  and  profited 
by  them.  If  others,  who  read  them,  shall  share  such 
advantage,  and  find  their  thoughts  stimulated,  or  their 
reverence  for  God  increased  and  quickened,  by  any  thing 
he  has  said,  he  will  be  more  than  repaid  for  the  addi- 
tional labor  of  conducting  them  through  the  press.    • 

E,.  S.  Storrs,  Jr. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
October  25th,  1856. 


[UHIVBRSITT] 
GEAHAM    LECTUEES. 


LECTURE    I. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  • 

In  commeiicing  this  course  of  lectures,  intended 
as  the  first  in  a  series  of  courses  to  be  delivered  here 
through  successive  years,  I  pause  in  admiration  of  the 
greatness  of  the  theme  which  is  thus  to  be  presented. 
We,  to  whom  is  assigned  the  function  which  I  am 
the  first  and  the  least  worthy  to  fulfil,  are  to  speak  of 
God,  the  Eternal  One;  and  to  set  forth  His  wisdom. 
His  power,  and  His  goodness,  as  these  are  exhibited 
in  the  works  of  creation.  In  its  scope,  then,  the 
theme  is  commensurate  with  the  Universe.  Wherever 
are  material  masses  or  atoms  which  God  has  formed, 
or  relations  which  He  has  constituted,  or  laws  which 
He  has  established,  or  powers  which  He  has  energized, 
or  life  which  He  has  originated,  and  which  He  now 
upholds  and  governs, — where  waters  roU  or  colors 
brighten,  where  grasses  and  plants,  or  statelier  growths, 


16  INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS. 

in  their  manifold  ranks  adorn  the  earth,  where  plan- 
ets and  stars  move  silent  in  their  courses,  wherever 
thought  or  life  is  developed,  or  even  the  fashion  of 
inanimate  matter  declares  the  arrangement  of  an 
intelligent  will, — thither  reaches  this  theme ;  pervading 
and  encompassing  as  gravitation  itself;  ubiquitous  and 
all-penetrating  as  the  thought  of  the  soul,  considering 
and   interpreting   the   operations   of  God. 

We  cannot  reckon  the  capacities,  or  anticipate  the 
attainments,  of  the  Angelic  intelligence.  We  only 
know,  that  they  are  higher  than  ours ;  that  with 
faculties  superior,  through  an  exercise  more  prolonged, 
from  higher  points  of  view,  and  with  opportunities 
of  culture  transcending  our  thought,  those  eminent 
spirits  consider  the  universe;  and  that  doubtless  our 
knowledge,  in  many  departments,  is  but  infantile  to 
theirs.  And  yet  the  Angelic  intelligence,  in  its  grandest 
enlargement  aA)^- elevation  of  power,  though  conducting 
its  processes  in  the  presence  of  the  -Creator,  and 
expressing  its  conceptions  in  the  unbounded  freedom 
of  a  spiritual  language,  cannot  fully  contain  or  utter 
the  truth  on  this  theme.  As  only  the  mind  which  in 
some  hour  of  fortunate  extasy  has  originated  the 
poem,  knows  all  the  significance  and"  the  virtue  of 
its  work,  the  subtle  harmonies  of  feeling  and  thought 
that  play  amid  the  modulated  lines,  the  delicate  shades 
of  superior  meaning  or  of  occult  suggestion  involved  in 


INTRODUCTOEY     REMARKS.  17 

terms  which  a  disciplined  intuition,  working  with 
exactest  method  and  care  although  with  freest  force 
and  beauty,  has  selected  from  their  synonymes,  and 
the  inmost  secrets  of  experience  which  these  utter ; 
as  only  the  trained  and  capacious  soul  which  takes 
architecture  for  its  instrument,  conceiving  the  whole 
figure  and  each  line  of  the  cathedral  before  the  spade 
or  the  chisel  have  begun,  knows  all  the  complete 
proportion  of  the  building, — ^wherein  every  angle  hath 
a  meaning  and  a  power,  and  every  tint  is  related  to 
the  distances,  masses  and  heights  around  it,  and  where 
the  whole  structure  grows  up  from  its  base  by  a  law 
that  is  at  once  invisible  and  determinate, — so,  and 
much  more,  only  the  mind  of  God  Himself,  the  poet 
and  the  architect  who  originated  the  Universe  and 
established  its  laws,  can  comprehend  the  mysteries 
of  order  and  of  grace  embraced  among  its  orbs,  whose 
choiring  movements  in  perpetual  anthem  rise  before 
Him,  whose  majestic  proportions  are  reared  as  a 
Temple  amid  the  expanse   of  unoccupied   space. 

To  investigate  this  theme  will  be  the  enjoyment,  I 
gladly  believe,  of  those  exalted  by  deliverance  from 
the  earth,  and  made  superior  to  our  mortal  limitations ; 
inheritors,  thus,  of  the  "  secret  of  the  Lord."  The 
utterance  of  this  shall  lay  a  burden  of  richer  praise 
even  upon  celestial  harps ;  and  the  compass  of  Inmior- 
tality  shall  not  be  too  vast  to  pursue  and  unfold  it. 

■"ft 


18  INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS. 

And  yet  from  this  whole  we  may  measure  off  parts ; 
as  the  scholar  may  dissect  certain  stanzas  or  a  canto 
from  the  series  of  the  poem,  as  the  student  of  archi- 
tecture may  take  portions  from  the  building,  for  his 
closer  survey.  And  by  a  sufficient  observation  of  these, 
we  may  approach  more  nearly  the  conception  of  their 
Author;  of  Him  who  ordained,  and  who  now  upholds, 
this  living,  far-reaching,  and  interlocked  system.  It 
is  this  which  the  Founder  of  these  courses  of  lectures, 
if  I  have  apprehended  his  purpose  aright,  designed 
to  have  done  here.  The  arrangement  which  he  has 
made  looks  to  years  and  generations  for  its  gradual 
accomplishment ;  and  the  managers  of  his  trust  propose 
to  fulfil  his  comprehensive  plan  by  securing  year  by 
year  some  cultivated  person,  who  shall  speak  on 
successive  Sabbath  evenings  in  this  place  of  that 
department  of  the  creation  with  which  he  is  familiar; 
exhibiting  the  demonstrations  of  God  that  are  in  it,  and 
unfolding  for  others  His  forming  thought. 

Thus  shall  the  lessons  of  the  whole  be  expressed  to 
us.  Flowers  and  herbs  shall  find  a  voice  through  the 
mind  that  has  studied  them,  and  has  caught  some  share 
of  their  native  grace,  and  so  shall  yield  their  modest 
witness  to  Him  who  saw  them  before  they  were.  In- 
sects and  birds  shall  tell  in  articulate  and  harmonious 
utterance  their  story  of  His  wisdom.  The  murmur  of 
the  sheU,  translated  into  the  laws  that  pulsate  in  it. 


INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS.  19 

shall  become  in  its  turn  a  musical  evangel ;  and  the 
pearly  sheen  which  lines  that  shell  shall  be  shown  to 
reflect  the  glory  of  His  thought  who  hath  made  even 
it  so  "  beautiful  in  his  time."  Fishes  and  quadrupeds, 
aU  living  things,  the  distant  orbs  treading  their  silent 
round  through  ether,  mosses  and  lichens,  the  crust  of 
the  globe  with  its  hoarded  metallic  and  mineral  treas- 
ures, the  atmosphere  and  its  elements,  light,  fire,  ther- 
mal and  climatic  changes,  the  differences  and  the  unity 
of  race  among  men,  the  very  progress  and  develop- 
ment of  civilized  society, — the  history  of  which  is  all 
but  a  record  of  one  supreme  Pro\ddence,  working 
through  free  or  unfriendly  instruments  to  realize  its 
designs — all  these  shaU  here  offer,  as  presented  by 
intelligent  and  reverent  minds,  their  tribute  unto  God! 
It  is  a  noble,  an  admirable  design.  The  thought 
of  the  eager  Hebrew  singer  seems  responded  to 
in  it,  when  he  cried  with  such  lyric  inspiration  and 
sweetness :  "  Praise  ye  Him,  sun  and  moon !  Praise 
Him,  aU  ye  stars  of  light!  Praise  Him,  ye  heavens 
of  heavens,  and  ye  waters  that  be  above  the  heavens ! 
*  *  *  Praise  the  Lord  from  the  earth,  ye  dragons 
and  all  deeps  !  Fire  and  hail;  snow  and  vapors; 
stormy  wind,  fulfilling  His  word;  mountains,  and  all 
hills ;  fruitful  trees,  and  aU  cedars ;  beasts,  and  all 
cattle;  creeping  things,  and  flying  fowl;  kings  of 
the    earth,   and   all  people;    princes,   and   aU   judges 


20  INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS. 

of  the  earth :  *  *  *  let  them  praise  the  name  of 
the  Lord!  for  His  name  alone  is  excellent;  His  glory 
is  above  the  earth  and  heaven!"  I  earnestly  rejoice 
in  the  liberal  and  permanent  foundation  of  these 
lectures.  And  I  cannot  but  believe  that  under  the 
teachings  to  be  annually  uttered  here,  on  a  theme  so 
wide,  so  sublime,  yet  so  practical,  not  only  will  this 
particular  community  be  year  by  year  instructed  and 
refreshed,  its  outlook  be  enlarged  over  the  domain  of 
the  creation,  and  its  vision  be  made  clearer  of  God's 
meaning  in  this,  but  also  the  common  Christian 
literature  of  our  time  will  be  expanded  and  enriched, 
and  thus  many  minds  be  made  permanently  wiser. 
May  a  spirit  of  intelligence,  of  candor,  and  of  religious 
earnestness,  of  fidelity  to  truth  and  fidelity  to  God, 
prevail  in  these  lectures;  and  a  blessing  from  above 
rest  evermore  upon  them ! 

Amid  the  expanse  thus  opened  before  us,  I  am  to 
explore,  like  those  who  shall  come  after,  one  limited 
province.  My  office  is,  in  the  lectures  which  I  present, 
to  treat  of  Man ;  of  man,  as  the  centre  and  the  head 
on  earth  of  all  that  we  see,  or  hear,  or  consider;  the 
personal  microcosm,  in  whom  all  else  is  imaged  and 
foreshadowed ;  the  marvellous  creature,  by  whom  all 
else  is  surpassed  and  is  ruled.  Nor  yet  of  Man,  in 
all  that  distinguishes  him,  am  I  to  speak,  but  only  of 
his  Mental  and  Moral  Constitution;   of  that  vital  and 


INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS.  21 

spiritual  principle  within  him,  which  is  higher  than 
the  body,  and  which  gives  to  that  its  dignity  and 
value. 

The  existence  of  such  a  principle,  will  hardly,  I 
suppose,  be  questioned  by  any  one.  It  would  be 
doubtless  a  mere  waste  of  time  to  undertake  to  demon- 
strate it.  Intuition  affirms  it.  All  action  reveals  it. 
And  every  observation  which  we  make  upon  life 
declares  it  to  us.  The  physical  frame  which  first 
confronts  us  as  we  analyse  man — the  bones,  the 
muscles,  the  nerves,  the  blood,  the  yielding  flesh,  the 
sensitive  tissues,  the  pliant  and  encompassing  integu- 
ment which  is  over  them — ^at  once  confesses  that  it 
is  not  the  whole,  that  it  is  not  chief  in  importance 
and  worth,  in  the  human  constitution.  There  is  a 
something  behind,  which,  though  invisible,  is  innately 
superior  to  all  this  fabric;  which  is  permanent,  while 
this  wastes;  which  lives  and  acts,  while  this  is 
passive;  which  takes  upon  itself  the  various  impres- 
sions imparted  from  without,  through  the  medium 
of  the  frame;  and  which  in  return,  gives  energy, 
direction  and  persistency  to  that  frame,  in  its  contacts 
with  matter.  The  frame  is  but  the  material  mechanism, 
within  and  through  which  works  and  reigns  the 
quickening  Spirit.  The  frame  gives  the  organs, 
through  which  this  invisible  principle  becomes  man- 
ifest. 


22  INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS. 

As   I  said,  our  instant  consciousness  tells   us   this. 
We  always  assume  it,  in  our  intercourse  with  others. 
It  is  so  perfectly  an  axiom,  that  no  man  could  dispute 
it,  even,   without  thereby   at  the   same   time   demon- 
strating it.     We  know  that  his  lips  do  not  move  of 
themselves.      There   is    a   spirit  behind,   which   urges 
and  directs  them.     I  shall  not,  therefore,  pause  on  the 
outward  frame,  in  inaugurating  these  annual  courses  of 
lectures.     There  are  wonders,  indeed,  of  formation  and 
relation,  included  in  this,  which  might  well  arrest  and 
repay   our  attention,   and   some   of  which   those    who 
have   not   studied   them   with   professional  minuteness 
may  be  competent  to  set  forth.     A  treatise  has  been 
written  for   example,  as   you  know — and  one   of  the 
most  elegant  and  fascinating  treatises  in  the   compass 
of  English  literature — on  the  form,  the  capacities,  and 
the   manifold   adaptations   of  the  human  Hand.      And 
no  one,  probably,  has  ever  arisen  from  the  study  of 
that  treatise,  without  a  new  impression  of  the  mysteries 
of  wisdom  incorporated  in  the  hand;    of  the  goodness 
and  the  skill  of  Him  who  framed  it,  to  be  His  minister 
and  artisan  on   earth;  the  dexterous  mechanic  accom- 
plishing His  designs,  or  the  ardent  apostle  distributing 
everywhere  the  messages  of  His   love.      If  a  similar 
treatise  could  be  written  upon  the  Eye,  that  wonderful 
organ,  more  delicate  and  more  splendid  in  its  almost 
spiritual    structure    than    either    of   the    others    that 


INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS.  23 

illustrate  the  frame,  which  stands  as  the  chief  and 
most  perfect  ambassador  between  nature  and  the  soul, 
making  us  acquainted  with  the  distant  and  the  minute, 
revealing  at  once  animalculse  and  the  stars ;  if  a 
similar  treatise  could  be  written  upon  the  Ear,  which 
rears  the  Appian  way  of  thought  between  one  mind 
and  another,  through  which  we  become  inheritors  of 
all  the  knowledge  that  is  syllabled  into  speech,  and 
find  the  responsive  spirit  stirred  by  all  the  music 

"Which  in  the  winds,  on  the  waves  dotli  move, 
Harmonizing  this  earth  with  that  we  feel  above ;" 

yea,  through  which  comes  to  us  that  nobler  music 
which  human  minds  have  spoken  in  eloquence,  or  have 
chanted  in  song : — ^if  these  treatises  could  be  written, 
and  others  with  them,  on  the  different  parts  of  this 
harmonious  and  confederated  frame,  wherein  every 
member  holds  constant  fellowship  with  every  other, 
and  where  the  whole  is  proportionate  and  organic, 
the  gain  to  Christian  knowledge  could  hardly  be 
overstated.  Such  treatises,  declaring  plain  facts  to 
plain  men,  yet  involving  the  substance  of  scientific 
expositions,  and  setting  that  forth  in  its  religious 
relations,  might  show  at  the  same  time  how  noble  is 
that  science  which  becomes  thus  the  helpful  minister 
of  religion,  and  how  grand  the  religion  which  can  thus 
be   illustrated    but    never    overthrown.      They  might 


24  INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 

shine  with  the  beauty  of  the  lustrous  eye.  They  might 
move  to  the  measure  of  those  great  harmonies,  to 
which  the  quick  and  sensitive  ear  returns  its  meet  and 
prompt  response.  I  hardly  know  another  oflSce  more 
noble  or  more  needful  than  that  of  him  who  should 
thus,  with  clear  and  adequate  knowledge,  in  the  lucid 
utterance  of  a  transparent  style,  set  before  us  the 
stately  and  rhythmical  proportion,  the  completeness 
of  each  organ,  the  correlate  proprieties  and  interde- 
pendencies  of  all,  in  this  our  ordered  and  compact  frame. 
He  would  celebrate  that  which  men  in  all  ages  have 
loved  to 'contemplate.  He  would  eclaricise  a  structure 
which,  since  the  Lord  hath  ascended  from  the  grave, 
bears  upon  it  the  prophecy  of  revival  and  immor- 
tahty ! 

But  this,  it  is  not  my  office  to  attempt.  This  is  for 
others,  to  whom  the  appropriate  preparatory  studies 
are  a  loved  specialty.  I  am  to  treat  of  that  within 
the  frame,  which  is  higher  than  itself;  the  highest 
thing,  in  fact,  in  all  the  terrestrial  system  around  us ; 
the  spiritual  principle  created  in  us  by  God.  And 
then  from  this  shall  radiate  hereafter,  as  shining  spikes 
from  a  concentric  axis,  the  subjects  that  successively 
shall  engage  your  attention. 

And  I  am  to  treat  this,  not  scientifically  only,  but 
religiously  as  well;  with  a  clear  apprehension  of  the 
facts   which   I  present,   and   an   effort  to   unfold    the 


INTRODUCTORY     REMARKS.  25 

psychologic  order  which  includes  and  reconciles  them, 
but  also  with  a  constant  reference  of  these  facts,  and 
of  the  laws  they  involve,  to  the  creating  Power  above 
them;  with  so  much  of  literary  skill  or  ornament  as 
may  readily  be  commanded,  and  may  conduce  to  the 
happiest  expression  of  the  theme,  but  especially  with  a 
prevalent  Christian  earnestness,  connecting  that  which 
we  consider  with  the  mind  of  the  Most  High,  and 
seeking  to  illustrate  the  goodness  and  the  wisdom  of 
Him  who  hath  formed  us. 

I  am  here,  as  not  merely  an  observer  of  nature,  but  a 
pupil  of  Christ,  spontaneously  referring  aU  facts  to 
God's '  authorship.  I  am  bound,  too,  by  the  very  terms 
of  my  theme,  to  treat  it  religiously,  and  not  merely 
with  scientific  or  literary  aspiration.  While,  therefore, 
I  hope  not  to  repulse  your  attention  by  awkwardness 
of  statement,  or  to  lose  it  by  confusion  and  careless- 
ness of  method,  or  Jby  debility  of  style,  I  shall  not  aihi 
to  make  this  service  a  mere  evening's  entertainment, 
as  a  lecture  on  science  or  on  history  might  be,  deliv- 
ered amid  the  hurry  of  the  week,  simply  secular  in  its 
character,  and  alternating  naturally  with  concerts  and 
shows,  the  opera  or  the  assembly;  but  I  shall  seek 
to  set  forth  clearly  the  great  verities  of  theology,  as 
these  are  manifested  in  the  frame  of  the  soul.  I  shall 
not  speak,  of  course,  of  those  particular  truths,  con- 
cerning  which,   though   Christians,   we    may  honestly 


2^  THEHUMANSOUL, 

differ.  Nor  shall  I  assume,  any  further  than  may  be 
necessary  for  the  purposes  of  illustration,  any  principles 
concerning  the  Divine  Revelation  which  we  all,  I 
suppose,  are  agreed  in  admitting  to  have  been  made 
in  the  Scriptures.  But  I  shall  assume  the  existence 
of  God,  as  the  one  Eternal  and  Infinite  Being,  and  His 
personal  connection  with  the  work  of  creation;  for  to 
this,  if  nothing  more,  my  theme  entitles  me.  And  then 
I  shall  endeavor  to  set  forth  His  character,  and  the 
greatness  of  His  power,  as  these  are  expressed  in  the 
marvellous  interior  constitution  of  our  being.  I  would 
bring  to  light  the  Divine  thoughts  within  us  ;  and 
would  speak  with  a  just  veneration  and  love  of  Him 
to  whom  all  that  we  are  we  owe,  and  to  whom  we 
should  render  continual  worship.  And  may  He  accept 
the  humble,  but  grateful  and  reverent  service  ! 


In  the  present  lecture  I  am  naturally  to*  consider 
the  constitution  of  the  soul  which  God  has  given  us, 
in  its   primary   aspect: — as    involving   Life;    a    Life 

PERSONAL  AND  SELF-CONSCIOUS,  AND  THEREFORE  MORAL,  IN 
EACH  OF  us;  A  LiFE  TRANSMITTED  TO  EACH  THROUGH 
OTHERS;     AND    CAPABLE,    AND    EVEN    PROPHETIC    IN    EACH,    OF 

CONTINUANCE  AND  ADVANCEMENT.  When  this  has  been 
considered,    we    may    notice     more     particularly    the 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  27 

special  relations  sustained  by  this  our  living  consti- 
tution, and  the  special  aptitudes  and  forces  which 
are  lodged  in  it,  adapting  it  to  fill  these.  But  this 
is  primary,  and  will  occupy  us  this  evening.  It  is  not 
at  all  the  less  important  because  it  is  familiar. 

"  And  man  became  A  Living  Soul."  Herein  is 
the  summit  of  the  Biblical  cosmogony.  From  chaos, 
and  the  order  which  followed  and  suspended  that, 
from  the  gathering  of  the  waters  in  a  place  by 
themselves,  and  the  pouring  of  Kght  on  the  now 
opened  earth,  from  the  quickening  of  the  soil  to  the 
production  of  its  fruits,  and  the  population  of  sea  and 
land,  of  earth  and  air,  with  their  appropriate  animated 
tribes,  we  come  at  last,  in  this  ascending  series  of 
effects,  to  Man,  the  head.  "  And  God  said,"  it  is 
written  in  the  oldest  of  all  extant  historic  writings, 
"  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness ; 
and  let  them  have  dominion,  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and 
over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  earth.  So  God  created  Man,  in 
His  own  image ;  in  the  image  of  God  created  He  him." 
Or,  as  it  is  more  particularly  stated,  a  little  further 
on  in  the  same  record : — "  The  Lord  God  formed 
Man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  Life;  and  he  became  a  Living 
Soul."      There  is   a  peculiarity   of  expression  in  the 


28  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

latter  declaration,  as  it  occurs  in  the  original,  which 
has  sometimes  attracted  the  attention  of  commentators. 
It  should  strictly  be  rendered :  '  and  breathed  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  of  Lives;'  as  if  all  the  powers 
of  life,  imparted  to  the  lower  ranks  of  creatures  by 
the  action  of  God,  were  combined  in  man,  while  one 
still  higher  was  superadded  to  them;  the  life  of  the 
plant,  the  life  of  the  insect,  the  animal  or  the  bird, 
being  consummated  in  him  who  was  subordinately  to 
represent  God  to  them,  and  who  alone  among  them 
all  was  made  in  God's  image.  So  man  became  a 
Living  Soul;  replete  with  Life;  and  by  virtue  of  this 
his  original  constitution  putting  the  crown  on  all 
that  had  preceded  him. 

I.  As  we  contemplate  the  Soul,  then, — by  which 
one  term  we  may  summarily  express  the  whole 
spiritual  and  invisible  constitution  within  us, — we  must 
ponder  it,  first,  as  a  repository  of  this  Life;  and 
notice  what  wonders  of  power,  wisdom  and  goodness 
combined,  are  inseparably  involved  in  this  formation 
of  it;  how  it  transcends  imitation ;  how  it  even 
surpasses  our  analysis,  and  our  thought ! 

We  take,  with  the  carefulest  and  most  cunning 
selection,  the  choicest  material  structures  on  earth ; 
take  marble  from  Pentelicus,  or  ivory  from  India ;  take 
gold  or  gems,  the  violet-tinted  iodine,  the  occult 
and  ductile   cadmium,  the   fluent  mercury  ;    take  that 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  29 

which  is  more  sensitive,  the  woods  cut  from  trees 
whose  inhaling  leaves  have  drawn  their  breath  beneath 
tropical  skies ;  the  fragile  and  tender  flower-stem  or* 
petal,  which  almost  visibly  starts  and  palpitates  if  light 
or  a  shadow  fall  suddenly  upon  it; — we  take  the 
costliest,  or  the  most  ethereal  and  superior  products, 
which  matter  in  all  its  range  presents  to  us,  and  as 
these  lie  spread  out  for  our  experiment  there  is  in 
them  no  intelligent  Life;  no  consciousness,  or  even 
sensibility,  that  we  discern ;  no  principle  like  that 
which  mysteriously  pulsates  in  every  frame  that  holds 
a  living  soul  within  it.  The  materials  we  are  to 
vivify  lie  passive  before  us.  There  are  forces  in  them, 
pervading  them,  and  giving  them  cohesion,  shape,  and 
in  some  instances  the  power  of  development  and  growth ; 
but  there  is  no  Life,  like  that  which  each  of  us  feels 
in  himself,  and  which  instantly  resides  in  every  most 
weak  and  helpless  infant  that  opens  its  gaze  on  unfa- 
miliar things  and  persons.  How  then  shall  we  generate 
it  ?  this  is  the  problem.  By  what  process  shall  we 
induce  such  Life  in  these  materials? 

We  carve  them  subtly,  into  all  graceful  forms.  We 
arrange  them  with  each  other  in  surpassing  combina- 
tions ;  making  each  illustrate  the  beauty  of  the  rest ; 
framing  statues  of  the  ivory ;  wreathing  jewels  and  gold 
into  inestimable  combinations  of  tiara  and  diadem; 
infolding    the    flowers    in    caskets    of   pearl;    making 


30  THEHUMANSOUL, 

marble  mimic  the  human  form,  till  it  seems  to  tremble, 
to  agonize,  or  to  erect  itself,  beneath  the  touch  of  the 
chisel.  And  still  we  have  quickened  no  Life  within 
them.  The  statue  lies  before  Pygmalion,  and  answers 
not  to  his  passionate  adjuration.  The  flowers  wither 
amid  the  pearl,  which  becomes  to  them  as  a  sepul- 
chre. And  the  odorous  woods,  while  imparting  of  their 
fragrance  and  instructing  us  by  their  beauty,  show  no 
power  of  motion,  and  no  consciousness  of  being. 

We  tint  them,  then,  with  all  vivid  colors;  we  pour 
the  glory  of  rainbows  on  them;  we  ply  them  with 
quickening  electrical  forces ;  we  breathe  over  them  the 
loftiest  inspirations  of  genius ;  we  resort  to  incantation, 
magic,  and  their  arts,  endeavoring  to  invoke  by  this 
clamorous  madness  a  power  from  nature  that  shall 
transcend  our  own;  and  still  all  our  eifort  is  entirely 
ineffectual.  We  have  not  altered  the  nature  of  our 
materials,  or  ennobled  their  qualities.  Least  of  all 
have  we  endowed  them  with  that  supreme  and  invis- 
ible force,  which  alone  can  make  them  self-conscious, 
active,  the  possessors  of  human  life,  and  the  subjects 
of  its  appropriate  law. 

We  dissolve,  then,  and  recombine  them.  By  the 
manifold  agencies  of  chemical  science,  we  blend  them 
together  in  an  intimate  fusion.  We  again  change 
their  proportions,  and  again  recombine  them ;  and  at 
last'  exhale   them,  into  invisible   elements.      Still  the 


ENDOWED    WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  31 

end  is  the  same.  We  cannot  impart  to  them  this, 
which  they  have  not.  We  cannot  evolve  from  them 
this,  the  very  prophecy  or  capability  of  which  is  not 
found  among  them.  We  cannot  exalt  them  to  the 
sphere  of  vitality.  And  nature  around  us  affords  no 
power  wherewith  to  accomplish  so  lofty  an  office. 
^  The  Depth  saith,  It  Ls  not  in  me.  And  the  Sea  saith, 
It  is  not  with  me.  The  gold  and  the  crystal  cannot 
equal  it;  and  the  exchange  of  it  shall  not  be  for 
jewels  of  fine  gold.'  We  have  labored  for  a  result, 
the  very  nature  of  which  eludes  our  analysis,  and 
the  power  to  produce  which  surpasses  aU  our  force. 

And  yet  with  this  regal  and  fruitful  energy,  so 
inaccessible  to  our  imitation,  the  soul  in  us  is  inly 
pervaded  at  every  moment.  We  are  what  we  are, 
only  and  strictly,  by  reason  of  it.  It  is  throned, 
invisibly,  on  every  beat,  and  it  forbids  any  pause,  of 
the  pulsating  heart.  It  is  beaming  through  the  eye. 
It  is  uttered  on  the  voice.  It  is  fluent  and  free  in 
every  part  of  the  complex  frame ;  roUing  along  the 
ruddy  current  that  bears  its  ministry  of  supply  to  each 
vein ;  making  the  frame  lovely  or  forceful,  a  thing  to  be 
cherished,  reverenced,  celebrated,  while  life  remains, 
and  only  when  that  leaves  it  to  be  solemnly  buried. 
Every  member  of  the  frame  takes  its  value  from  this ; 
only  because  of  it,  the  eye  being  able  to  go  out  to  the 
stars,   and  shod  with  light  to  tread  the   misty  rings 


B2  THEHUMANSOUL, 

of  Saturn,  or  see  where  Sirius  leads  his  troop;  only 
because  of  it,  the  ear  being  quick  to  catch  unseen 
aerial  motions,  and  the  tongue  to  charge  such  with 
the  utterance  of  thought.  And  while  we  cannot  tell 
the  nature  of  it,  or  read  the  mystery  of  its  production 
or  its  continuance,  while  the  soul  itself, — which  can 
go  back  over  history,  and  summon  again  the  efforts 
and  the  events  that  have  given  a  lustre  and  consecra- 
tion to  the  earth,  which  can  make  its  own  acts  and 
its  long-buried  thoughts  arise  before  it  in  vivid  array, — 
cannot  get  back  to  the  source  of  its  consciousness,  or 
tell  what  its  own  unseen  life  consists  in,  this  fills  that 
soul  at  every  instant,  and  stocks  it  with  power,  and 
gives  it  a  glory  which  matter  does  not  rival,  which  art 
cannot  imitate,  and  which  language  itself  hath  not  terms 
to  set  forth. 

This  hath  its  origin  then,  demonstrably,  certainly, 
in  the  mind  of  the  Most  High !  And  it  shows  at  the 
first  glance,  this  power  of  Life  wherewith  the  spirit  in 
us  is  replete,  how  unspeakably  forever  His  power 
and  wisdom  transcend  our  own;  this  highest  effect, 
which  we  cannot  approximate,  and  cannot  even  under- 
stand, being  easy  to  Him ;  the  very  dust  of  the  earth 
being  filled  with  life,  at  a  breath  of  His  will !  Before 
this,  pauses  our  most  soaring  intuition.  Before  this, 
fails  our  most  rigorous  analysis.  We  enter  the 
supernatural,   we    meet  the    immediate    operation    of 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  33 

God,  we  can  only  say,  in  reverent  awe,  ^He  is  higher 
than  we  all,'  the  moment  we  consider  this  primary 
mystery,  the  elemental  energy  of  Life  in  the  soul. 

II,  But  it  is  not  only  Life  which  God  hath  given 
us,  and  which  is  infolded  and  exhihited  by  the  soul. 

It   is    A  PERSONAL   AND    SELF-CONSCIOUS    LiFE,   INDIVIDUAL    IN 

EACH ;  fenced  out  from  even  the  participation  of  the 
Infinite,  and  made  separate  and  peculiar  in  each 
subject  of  it.  Consider  it  thoughtfully,  then,  in  this 
second  aspect. 

What  faculty  in  the  soul  is  the  centre  of  this 
its  constant  personality,-  or  how  this  element  should 
scientifically  be  defined,  I  do  not  discuss.  I  only  hold 
up  to  you  the  obvious  fact  that  such  a  radical  spirit- 
ual division  distinguishes  our  being,  and  is  permanently 
inwrought  with  it. 

There  is,  as  I  have  said,  a  certain  life-force  in  the 
plant,  in  the  tree,  and  in  all  vegetable  organisms.  But 
it  wants  in  each,  it  wants  entirely,  this  remarkable 
element  of  self-consciousness  and  personality.  It  hath 
nothing  individual  or  moral,  therefore,  in  it.  It  does 
not  constitute  the  flower  or  the  tree  a  separate 
personal  subject  and  agent,  in  the  universe  of  Being; 
capable  of  receiving  instructions  and  laws,  of  being 
impressed  by  arguments  and  motives,  and  of  responding 
with  its  own  self-moved  activities  to  an  influence 
exerted  upon  it  from  without.     The  flower  is  passive. 

3 


34 


It  is  generated,  and  then  is  governed,  by  forces  alto- 
gether exterior  and  physical;  and  the  life  which  is  in 
it  is  only  separated  in  space,  or  separated  in  time,  is  not 
separated  at  all  by  a  spiritual  division,  from  the  equal 
life  in  other  flowers,  or  other  natural  growths.  It  is  one 
force  which  resides  and  works  universally  in  the  soil, 
and  which  shows  itself  in  all  this  teeming  production. 
As  the  spring,  which  sends  its  waters  downwards  from 
the  far  mountain-summit,  may  show  those  waters  first 
in  the  cascade,  then  in  the  rivulet  peacefully  winding 
among  the  trees,  then  in  the  tiny  and  transparent 
lake  collected  within  the  grass-rimmed  basin,  '  the 
smile  of  the  mountain'  as  men  playfully  call  it,  and 
afterwards  in  different  jets  and  fountains,  the  wayside 
brook,  the  tumbling  rapid,  and  bye  and  bye  in  the 
mill-stream,  yet  everywhere  it  is  the  same  water  from 
the  same  spring  which  is  thus  revealed,  the  fountain 
being  only  phenomenally  different  from  the  cascade 
or  the  rivulet — so  it  is  one  and  the  same  energy,  and 
that  purely  physical,  which  is  shown  in  the  violet, 
the  anemone,  and  the  rose,  or  equally  in  the  beech- 
tree,  the  elm,  and  the  oak.  Each  one  of  these  is 
distinguished  from  each  of  the  others  by  mechanical 
division,  and  by  external  attributes ;  but  neither  is 
distinguished  from  any  of  the  others  by  a  personal 
separation.  One  force  pervades  and  vivifies  aU;  no 
more  attaining  self-consciousness  in  either  than  gravi- 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  35 

tation  attains  this  when  it  acts  upon  the  star  rather 
than  the  pebble,  or  than  the  crystalizing  force  which 
permeates  nature  attains  this  and  displays  it,  when  it 
shapes  the  diamond  rather  than  the  flint. 

And  so  it  might,  I  think,  have  seemed  probable 
that  the  utmost  force  of  Creative  Power  when 
exerted  upon  man,  in  giving  to  him  that  far  nobler 
life  which  the  soul  contains,  would  have  been  ex- 
pressed in  a  similar  result;  in  communicating  a  share 
of  the  universal  animation  to  each  successive  subject 
of  it,  and  making  each  soul  to  be  in  turn  but  a  tran- 
sient and  disappearing  emanation  from  the  Infinite ; 
its  life  re-absorbed,  when  the  term  of  its  temporary 
exhibition  was  reached,  as  the  waters  of  the  stream 
are  drawn  upward  into  the  skies,  again  to  fall  in 
showers  or  dews  on  other  summits,  and  again  to  lapse, 
in  constant  revolution,  downward  to  the  sea.  Such  a 
constitution  as  this  for  mankind  lies  nearer  the  level 
of  our  conceptions  than  the  one  that  has  been  realized. 
And  so  that  philosophy  which  takes  its  rise  and  finds 
its  laws  in  the  mere  human  judgment,  acting  apart 
from  or  against  Revelation,  has  always  been  inclined 
to  substitute  this  for  our  actual  and  far  more  astonishing 
constitution. 

But  God,  our  infinite  Author,  transcends  the  bounds 
of  this  arrangement  at  the  very  first  step.  He  not 
only  communicates  life   to  the   soul,  and  the  highest 


m 

life  of  which  we  esm  conceive,  but  he  sejfarates  that  life, 
by  a  complete  inward  division,  from  every  other.  He 
creates  the  soul  a  self-conscious  Person,  by  the  motion 
of  his  will.  He  endows  it  with  its  separate  faculties 
and  being.  He  makes  it,  in  every  case,  an  individual 
agent;  whose  life  is  intermingled  with  the  life  of  no 
other,  but  is  radically  and  forever  distinguished  from 
that;  whose  consciousness  overlays  the  consciousness 
of  no  other,  and  is  in  turn  overlaid  by  no  other  ;  which 
stands  toward  Himself,  even,  as  a  separate  Being; 
dependent  upon  Him,  yet  having  its  sources  of  impulse 
and  volition  within  itself;  as  purely  a  personal  actor 
in  the  universe  as  He  himself  is ;  capable  of  acting 
against  him  if  it  choose,  and  neither  impaired  in  its 
personality,  nor  determined  in  its  operations,  by  His 
presence  with  it.  It  is  not  an  emanation  from  him ; 
but  a  separate,  living,  and  self-moved  Person,  created 
by  him.  Its  will  is  not  His  will.  Its  mind  is  in  no 
sense  a  part  of  His  mind.  In  His  infinite  intuition,  in 
His  eternal  experience,  its  consciousness  hath  no  part. 
Our  primary  intuition  reveals  this,  and  proves  it ;  our 
most  searching  analysis  only  confirms  it ;  our  latest 
recollection  invoh^es  it  still.  So  soon  as  we  are 
conscious,  we  are  inly  persuaded  of  this  our  final  and 
complete  personality  of  life  and  faculty.  "I  think, 
therefore,  I  am;"  is  the  old  logic.  And  while  as  an 
argument  to  demonstrate  our  existence  it  is  certainly 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE,  37 

worthless,  mvolving  the  conclusion  in  tke  first  term  of 
the  premise,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  it  involves 
this  sense  of  personality  in  each  part.  "I  think, 
therefore,  I  am;"  'I' — a  living,  ajcting,  and  separate 
Intelligence,  identified  with  no  other,  in  no  smallest 
degree  confounded  with  any  other,  not  a  fractional 
segment  of  a  Universal  Life  pervading  the  race,  but  a 
personal  being,  with  my  own  entire  endowment  of 
faculty,  complete  in  myself,  and  self-determined, — ^I 
think,  and  am!' 

The  child  owns  this  intuitive  conviction.  The  man 
can  neither  outgrow  it  in  kis  experience,  nor  supplant 
it  by  his  logic.  Society  stands  on  it;  and  all  the 
relations  we  assume  towards  each  ether  involve  the 
consciousness  of  this  personal  constitution,  self-centred 
and  final  in  every  one.  • '  I,  and  Mine,'  '  Thou,  and 
Thine,'  ^He  and  His,' — ^because  of  these  radical,  inde- 
structible distinctions,  to  fortify  the  interests  which 
naturally  arise  from  them,  Society  exists,  with  gov- 
ernment for  its  instrument;  and  with  reference  to 
these,  its  whole  administration  is  instinctively  ordered. 
So  in  literature  and  art,  in  all  codes  of  morals  as  well 
as  of  legislation,  in  the  daily  conduct  of  household 
life,  in  every  act,  impulse  and  hope,  of  the  human 
Intelligence,  this  permanent  and  paramount  distinction 
of  individuals,  the  life  in  each  one  of  whom  is  separate 
and  peculiar,  set  apart  from  every  other,  is  continually 


38  THEHUMANSOUL, 

recognized.  The  conviction  of  it  is  ineradicable  in  the 
race ;  and  no  possible  mental  training  can  ever  obliterate 
it.  Delirium  itself — it  is  a  noticeable  fact— in  its  ordi- 
nary developements  still  assumes  the  validity  of  this 
central  distinction ;  and  its  climax  is  reached,  the  very 
summit  of  its  absurdities,  the  aphelion  of  its  wanderings, 
when  it  forgets  or  overrides  this.  The  consciousness 
of  this  is  sunken  so  deeply  into  the  soul,  that  our 
whole  organization  must  be  upturned  and  confounded 
before  this  is  disturbed. 

We  feel  this  ourselves,  at  every  moment.  No  more 
are  we  certain,  each  for  himself,  of  being  a  man,  with 
a  living  soul,  and  not  a  pebble,  a  plant,  or  a  brute, 
than  of  being  one  man,  of  a  personal  spirit,  with  its 
separate,  self-governing,  and  incommunicable  powers, 
and  not  another,  or  a  fractional  manifestation  of  a 
universal  force.  From  the  material  creation  we  are 
set  apart  by  elevation ;  being  in  the  natural  dignity 
of  our  life  exalted  above  it.  From  the  sentient  and 
intelligent  creation  around  us,  we  are  set  apart  by 
division ;  being  in  the  essence  and  the  scope  of  our 
life  individualized  from  it.  Neither  matter  on  the 
one  hand,  therefore,  with  its  multiform  forces,  nor  the 
universal  animation  of  Pan-theism  on  the  other  hand, 
includes  or  contains  our  personal  being.  But  apart 
from  all  others,  in  essential  singularity  of  constitution 
and  life,  each  watches  and  acts,  and  is  acted  on  by 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL    LIFE.  39 

others,  continually  roYealing  his  own  peculiar  and  un- 
shared existence,  continually  putting  forth  individual 
powers. 

It  is  a  natural  effect  of  this,  and  thus  in  turn  an 
illustration  of  it,  that  nothing  else  interests  man  so 
quickly,  or  affects  him  so  powerfully,  as  does  the 
pressure  of  another  personal  soul  against  his ;  the 
contact  of  its  life,  with  his  separate  and  different  life. 
The  great  masters  in  literature  and  art  have  been  those 
who  have  been  able  to  impress  their  own  personality, 
most  exactly  and  powerfully,  on  the  words  which  they 
uttered,  or  the  works  which  they  sent  forth;  so  that 
we  stUl  instinctively  say,  as  we  read  or  survey  these, 
'  that  sentence,  that  dialogue,  is  instinct  with  the  very 
life  of  Plato ;  his  genius  urges  in  every  line :'  ^  that 
figure,  that  picture,  still  glows  in  each  line,  and  each 
radiant  color,  with  the  quickening  force  of  Raphael's 
soul;'  ^it  is  their  Life  that  meets  us,  quickening  the 
utterance.'  And  just  in  proportion  as  the  work  which 
is  sent  forth  wants  this  vital  unity,  is  devoid  of  this 
informing  power  which  makes  it  almost  as  personal  as 
its  author,  it  perishes  the  more  speedily.  As  a 
mechanical  compact  of  separable  particulars,  the  revo- 
lution of  the  world's  thoughts  shake  it  apart,  and  leave 
no  trace  of  it. 

It  is  essentially  the  same  fact,  which  gives  to 
eloquence,   or  to  music,  as  now  uttered  by  men,  their 


40 


most  thrilling  power.  The  personal  soul  in  anothei 
speaks  to  iis  through  these  instruments;  and  through 
poetry,  as  well;  and  sometimes  in  the  simplest  utter- 
ances of  life.  And  there  is  no  other  appeal  that  can 
be  made  to  our  sensibilities  so  mighty  as  that,  so 
searching  and  inspiring.  The  storm  that  whirls  among 
the  mountains,  the  stoop  of  the  whirlwind  that  wrenches 
the  tree  from  its  bed  in  the  soil,  the  utmost  rage  of 
oceanic  commotions, — they  have  not  that  dominant 
power  upon  them  to  start  our  spirits,  and  carry  our 
sympathies  to  an  equal  agitation,  which  eloquence  has, 
when  it  utters  the  force  of  one  aroused  soul,  or  which 
music  has,  when  the  life  of  a  fine  and  energizing  mind  is 
revealed  to  us  through  it.  And  no  rainbow  that  paints 
its  arch  upon  the  cloud,  no  river  that  courses  like 
liquid  silver  through  emerald  banks,  no  sunset  that 
opens  its  deeps  of  splendor,  with  domes  of  sapphire 
and  pinnacles  of  chrysolite,  hath  any  such  beauty  to 
him  who  surveys  it,  as  the  poem  or  the  discourse 
which  speaks  the  peace,  or  the  triumphing  hope,  of  an- 
other human  soul.  For  forever  is  it  true  that  the  life 
in  each  stands  apart  from  the  life  in  every  other.  It 
hath  its  centre,  though  not  its  cause,  within  itself;  is 
full-orbed  in  each;  commingled  with  that  of  no  other 
being ;  as  separate  in  each,  and  as  purely  individual, 
as  .if  there  were  no  other  besides  it  in 'existence  ! 

How  marvellous  is  this !  and  how  infinite  the  Power, 


ENDOWED    WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  41 

bow  infinite  the  Wisdom,  which  conceived  and  ordained 
this  constitution  of  the  soul!  We  cannot  at  all  com- 
prehend such  a  Power !  It  is  because  they  cannot 
comprehend  it,  as  I  have  intimated,  that  some  philos- 
ophers have  attempted  to  deny  this  radical  personality 
of  our  spiritual  life ;  to  resolve  our  wondrous  individual 
being  into  the  special  and  transient  manifestation  of 
an  all-pervading  Spiritii^  Miindi.  But  their  arguments 
and  conclusions  splinter  instantly  into  fragments  against 
the  invulnerable  conviction  of  the  soul.  It  is  because 
they  cannot  comprehend  this,  that  other  adventurers 
on  the  sea  of  speculation  have  been  moved  to  depreciate 
the  costly  and  supreme  quality  of  this  endowment 
which  we  receive;  to  interpret  the  Life  which  distin- 
guishes the  soul,  as  the  crowning  product  of  our 
physical  conformation,  the  topmost  expression  of 
mechanical  forces.  But  again  all  their  processes  are 
arrested,  and  brought  to  nought,  before  our  intuitive 
and  constitutional  conviction.  The  fact  remains,  as 
against  either  class,  so  palpable  that  no  man  can  fail 
to  perceive  it,  so  central  that  nothing  can  eliminate  it 
from  consciousness,  that  the  life  within  us,  so  secret 
in  its  nature,  so  subtle  in  its  operations,  and  yet  so 
copious,  princely  and  governing — which  the  microscope 
cannot  trace,  which  the  earth  cannot  limit — ^is  different 
from  gravitation,  superior  to  any  force  of  chemical 
attraction,    in    its    kind    inimitable,    as    in    its    value 


42  THEHUMANSOUL, 

unspeakable  ;  and  that  this  is  personal,  final,  self- 
conscious,  in  every  one ;  capable  of  acquisition,  capable 
of  self-government,  susceptible  to  injury,  and  fringed 
with  quick  sympathies,  but  fenced  out  from  the  partici- 
pation of  all  others,  not  constrained  or  diminished  by 
even  the  all-comprehending  life  of  its  Author !  Apart 
though  observant,  independent  though  created,  it  sur- 
veys, affects,  and  is  influenced  by  others,  but  never 
includes  them,  nor  is  itself  included  by  them.  And 
God  himself,  as  a  separate  Person,  must  show  his 
thoughts  to  it,  that  it  may  apprehend  them. 

Herein  is  Power,  that  passes  immeasurably  beyond 
our  computation ;  and  herein,  too,  are  Wisdom  and 
Goodness  combined,  in  an  equal  exhibition.  This 
primary  fact,  which  we  touch  in  our  simplest  survey 
of  the  soul,  sets  God  before  us  in  his  true  glory !  For 
upon  this  rigidly  personal  constitution  of  the  soul  in 
each  man,  is  built  the  whole  series  of  the  attainments 
he  may  make.  Around  it  are  set  all  the  circles  of 
obligation  that  environ  and  discipline  him.  He  is  made 
a  moral  being,  responsible  for  the  use  of  the  powers 
that  have  been  given  him,  because  those  powers  have 
strictly  and  solely  been  given  to  Am,  and  are  his  own 
and  not  another's.  He  is  introduced  to  the  relations 
that  surround  him  in  life,  only  through  the  same 
discriminating  constitution.  As  I  have  said,  all  society 
stands  on  this,  and  therefore,  by  its  existence,  becomes 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  43 

in  turn  a  witness  for  this.  And  all  the  more  subtle 
and  intimate  relations  which  unite  man  to  his  fellows, 
the  relations  of  mutual  acquaintance  and  friendship — 
those  relations  that  give  their  basis  and  their  birth 
to  kindnesses,  generosities,  and  greater  philanthropies — 
become  possible  to  him,  through  the  same  constitution. 

Yea,  the  higher  relations  that  unite  him  to  the  Past, 
and  make  him  the  inheritor  of  those  immense  fruits 
which  have  sprung  from  its  great  action  and  endurance  ; 
the  highest  relations,  that  unite  him  to  God,  and  to 
those  unseen  celestial  Beings  who  are  around  God's 
throne,  with  whom  it  is  now  man's  privilege  to  sym- 
pathize, with  whom  bye  and  bye  it  may  be  his 
privilege  to  hold  intimate  converse ;  those  relations 
that  may  be  hereafter  unfolded,  though  not  as  yet 
anticipated  by  us,  connecting  the  life  of  each  pure 
man  with  the  Universe  of  sentient  and  intelligent 
being ; — all  these  become  actual  or  possible  to  us, 
only  and  solely  because  we  are  Persons.  They  are 
brought,  as  wreaths  of  laurel  and  of  oak-leaves,  or  of 
celestial  amaranth,  to  crown  our  nature,  by  that  won- 
drous constitution  which  distinguishes  each  living  soul 
from  all  others.  Not  one  of  them  would  be  even 
conceivable  by  us,  except  for  this. 

Self-culture  becomes  possible,  too,  through  this 
constitution,  and  only  through  this;  and  so  this  is 
the  base,  if  not  the  germ,  of  all  knowledge  which  is 


44 


truly  such,  and  of  all  peculiar  and  satisfying  happiness. 
Our  life  not  being  an  emanation  from  God,  but  a 
personal  self-containing  product  of  his  power,  we  are 
not  born  to  a  perception  of  truth  which  floods  our 
capacities  as  soon  as  they  are  opened,  as  the  tides  of 
a  sea  pour  up  each  inlet  that  is  scooped  out  to  receive 
them ;  we  do  not  receive  pleasure,  and  utter  it  mechan- 
ically, as  the  pipes  of  the  organ  pour  out  without 
partaking  the  harmonies  that  breathe  through  them. 
But  we,  each  one  of  us,  as  our  life  is  unfolded,  separate 
from  all  others,  radically  discriminated  in  its  vital  unity 
from  that  of  every  other,  must  set  up  for  ourselves  on 
the  theatre  of  the  universe ;  surveying  and  appropriating 
by  our  personal  activity,  and  making  some  domain  in 
the  system  of  truth,  some  home  amid  the  possibilities 
of  experience,  our  own  by  our  personal  mastery  of  it. 
We  must  come  up  to  the  study  of  the  system  of  things, 
as  if  no  being  had  existed  before  us,  as  if  no  being 
now  existed  beside  us ;  gaining  help  from  other  persons, 
but  not  sharing  their  enjoyment,  or  partaking  their 
knowledge,  by  prerogative  of  birth ;  possessing  nothing 
which  we  do  not  by  our  own  endeavor  appropriate. 
And  then,  when  appropriated,  this  is  our  own,  and  not 
another's.  We  do  not  partake'  a  promiscuous  opu- 
knoe;  but  every  soul  first  gains,  and  then  keeps,  its 
special  wealth.  Its  faculties  are  invigorated  by  the 
very  effort  to  gain  this;   and  it  reaches  a  fresh   and 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  45 

more  copious  developement,  it  rises  to  new  vigor, 
it  becomes  imbued  with  an  enduring  beauty,  because 
it  was  set  apart  from  all  others,  and  made  to  stand 
an  individual  in  the  universe. 

And  so  from  this  constitution  of  our  being  comes 
finally,  but  directly,  the  infinite  variety  that  is  shown 
among  men;  a  variety  of  attainment,  of  character  and 
tendency,  and  even  of  essential  spiritual  force,  and  not 
a  mere  variety  of  circumstances  and  of  aspect.  The 
personal  constitution  in  every  man  asserts  itself  in 
differences  which  discriminate  him  from  all  his  equals  ; 
and  these  differences,  as  developed  and  perpetuated  by 
culture,  preserve  the  realm  of  human  life  from  the 
smallest  monotony.  They  make  it  more  various,  di- 
versified and  changeful,  than  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
or  the  system  of  the  clouds.  One  is  intellectual  in 
the  very  bent  of  his  constitution,  and  so  in  his  habit, 
and  the  tone  of  his  character;  another  is  afifectionate, 
sensitive,  emotive  ;  one  is  impulsive,  and  another 
deliberate;  another  hath  that  delicate  humor  in  him 
which  extracts  the  pleasing  from  every  occurrence, 
and  runs  its  thread  of  sUvery  radiance  through  even 
the  darkest  tissue  of  disaster;  another  is  marked  by 
force  of  will;  and  another  stOl  is  artistically  inspired. 
And  even  beneath  these  general  diversities,  other 
minor  peculiarities  become  equally  apparent.  Of  sev- 
eral intellectual  persons,  one  is  more  analytic,  and  an- 


46  THEHUMANSOUL, 

other  more  discursive.  One  finds  a  fact,  but  discerns 
nothing  in  it.  Another  lays  it  away,  as  the  shell-fish 
lays  the  sand-grain,  in  the  cleansing  crypt  of  his  more 
subtle  and  renovating  genius,  till  bye  and  bye  it  is 
changed  into  the  principle  of  philosophy,  or  the  very 
pearl  of  poetry,  instinct  with  chaste  and  harmonious 
beauty.  One  meditates  an  enterprise,  and  another 
achieves  it,  and  still  another  celebrates  it ;  the  same 
executive  and  heroic  force  residing  in  each,  and 
manifested  in  either,  but  in  different  degrees.  One 
pours  the  genial  light  of  kindness  on  all  by  the  hearth- 
side,  and  another  encompasses  the  poor  with  his  com- 
passions, and  yet  another  hath  that  sweet  charity  in 
the  soul  to  which  all  creatures  of  God  are  precious, 
and  which  finds  a  friend  in  the  African  or  the  Islander ; 
and  the  separate  beauty  of  either  example  contrasts, 
yet  enhances,  the  beauty  of  the  other.  And  so  an 
infinite  variety  is  given  to  the  sum  of  human  life. 
Rembrandt  paints  all  in  shadow,  and  Claude  Lorraine 
in  sunny  light.  Petrarch  frames  with  cunning  skill 
his  chiming  'sonnets,  and  Dante  portrays  with  majestic 
hand,  that  makes  the  page  almost  tingle  with  fire,  his 
vision  of  the  Future.  Shakspeare,  with  a  well-nigh 
prescient  intelligence,  interprets  the  secrets  of  history 
and  of  life,  and  reads  the  courses  of  the  Future  in  the 
Past;  and  Milton  rolls,  from  beneath  the  great  arches 
of  his   religious    and    cathedral-like  soul,   its    sublime 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  47 

oratorios.  And  the  copiousness  of  experience,  the 
variety,  affluence,  multiformity  of  life,  as  it  exists 
upon  earth  and  arrests  our  attention,  is  derived  alto- 
gether, in  the  ultimate  analysis,  from  this  personal 
constitution  of  each  individual.  The  most  various 
tints,  and  tones,  and  forms — more  various  than  the  tints 
of  grasses  and  flowers,  of  clouds  and  of  sunsets,  more 
various  than  the  tones  of  song-birds  and  of  winds,  more 
diversified  than  the  forms  of  the  earth  and  the  sea — 
are  made  to  adorn  and  characterize  society,  to  reproduce 
themselves  there  and  to  replenish  it  forever,  by  that 
simple  and  primary  constitution  of  God,  according  to 
which,  in  His  infinite  power.  He  makes  the  life  in  each 
man  to  be  personal,  dividing  it  from  the  similar  life  in 
all  others,  from  even  His  own  all-including  Personality. 
The  demonstrations  of  our  Author  are  in  this  constitu- 
tion, as  vivid  as  the  stars  that  front  us  in  the  sky ! 

III.  But,  yet  further,  we  must  notice — for  it 
presses  itself  upon  us,  the  moment  we  regard  the 
constitution  of  the  soul — that  the  Life  which  is  thus 
inimitable   and   personal  in   each  subject   of  it,   comes 

TO  EACH  BY  TRANSMISSION  FROM  PARENTS  AND  AN  ANCESTRY, 

and    is    thus    organically,    by    its    creation,    set    in 

INTIMATE   relations   WITH    THE   EQUAL   AND    SIMILAR    LIFE    OP 

OTHER  PERSONS;  with  that,  indeed,  of  the  whole  Race 
of  men.  Here  another  mysterious  and  beautiful  thing 
becomes  evident  in  it,  and  the  mind  of  the  Most  High 
is  still  further  displayed  to  us. 


48  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

Clearly  this  method  is  freely  chosen  by  our  Creator. 
It  is  not  made  necessary  by  any  thing  in  our  nature. 
It  does  not  obtain,  so  far  as  we  are  told  or  can 
properly  conjecture,  among  other  orders  of  personal 
beings.  They  seem,  rather,  created  with  full  powers 
at  the  outset;  each  one  owing  being  to  the  simple 
creative  fiat  of  God,  and  each  as  a  prince  and  a  hierarch 
before  Him,  in  the  panoply  of  his  faculties,  commencing 
•his  experience.  Undeniably,  this  would  have  been 
jjossible  among  men.  It  could  have  been  no  task  to 
Omnipotence  so  to  ordain  it.  God  did  so  ordain  it  in 
the  constitution  of  the  first  man  who  came  into  being 
on  the  earth.  But  this  is  not  the  particular  constitu- 
tion w^hich  He  has  elected  with  reference  to  us.  We 
are  created  by  Him  according  to  a  method  which 
interlinks  generations;  and  the  personal  self-conscious 
life  of  each,  which  surpasses  all  speech,  all  reckoning 
or  thought,  is  transmitted  to  each  through  the  ministry 
of  others.  It  comes  by  pro-creation,  and  not  simply 
by  an  immediate  operation  of  Omnipotence.  It  is 
inchoate  at  first,  and  grows  gradually  out  to  a  perfectly 
self-containing  and  self-governing  developement.  And 
thus  it  is  related  to  the  series  of  the  Race.  Everv 
soul  is  individual,  but  none  is  solitary  or  isolated  on 
earth;  and  every  one  is  an  heir  of  the  Past,  and  a 
parent  of  the  Future. 

That   this   is   the   actual   constitution  of  our  being, 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  49 

as  realized  now  in  us  and  all  others,  cannot  be  denied. 
Whatever  observation  we  make  upon  society,  our  own 
experience,  reveals  it  too  clearly.  That  this  constitu- 
tion exhibits  wisdom,  goodness,  and  power,  on  the 
part  of  our  Creator,  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  is  what 
we  are  less  apt  to  recognize  and  feel.  Yet  this,  I 
think,  wlQ  be  evident  to  us  the  moment  we  consider  it. 

It  may  seem  at  first,  to  the  superficial  observer, 
that  the  power  of  God  is  less  signally  displayed  under 
this  arrangement,  in  the  creation  of  each  living  and 
personal  soul,  than  it  would  have  been  under  the  other 
which  I  have  indicated.  But  the  contrary  is  true. 
For  the  power  of  God  is  always  most  impressively 
exhibited  in  nature  in  making  slight  forces,  and 
evidently  unequal  and  incompetent  forces,  produce  in 
their  action  vast  efiects;  in  conditioning  majestic  and 
stupendous  results  on  agencies  inadequate,  or  even 
foreign  and  uncongenial.  Thus  a  word,  we  are  told, 
being  clothed  with  an  energizing  and  organific  efficiency 
by  the  will  of  the  Almighty,  formed  the  World,  at  the 
beginning;  and  a  movement,  as  of  breath,  infused  life 
into  the  Soul.  Thus  the  spittle  and  the  clay,  which 
lay  passive  before  the  Lord,  till  He  infused  divine 
energy  into  them,  were  the  means  of  restoring  his 
sight  to  the  blind;  and  a  touch,  or  a  word,  raised 
the  dead  even  to  life.  The  miracle  was  not  less  but 
more  apparent,  because  such  conditions,  in  themselves 

4 


50  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

SO  inadequate,  were  preliminary  to  it.  The  mind 
springs  up,  in  interpreting  the  event,  from  the  evident 
insufficiency  of  the  material  means,  to  a  higher  appre- 
hension of  that  supreme  and  inconceivable  power  which 
could  make  such  gross  and  unfit  conditions  the  agency 
for  accomplishing  a  result  so  astonishing.  It  measures 
the  sight  restored  to  the  blind  against  the  spittle;  it 
measures  the  life  restored  to  the  dead  against  the 
mechanical  pressure  of  the  fingers;  and  it  knows  all 
the  more  that  Omnipotence  was  involved  in  producing 
the  effect,  because  the  veil  of  such  an  apparatus 
was  interposed  before  it. 

And  so  in  the  creation  of  the  personal  Soul,  with 
its  self-conscious  life.  God  makes  these  mortal  frames 
of  ours  pro-creators  of  it,  by  his  own  free  yet  fixed 
arrangement.  He  evolves,  through  the  action  of  the 
body  which  he  has  formed,  a  spirit  which  that  body 
cannot  equal  or  emulate;  a  spirit  akin  to  His  own,  in 
constitution;  and  from  which  the  body  derives  its 
power,  and  every  value.  He  makes  the  frame  His 
material  mediator  in  the  production  of  this  Life ;  which, 
except  in  the  mode  ordained  by  Him,  it  is  just  as 
incapable  of  producing  in  another  as  it  is  of  generating 
light  or  thought  by  a  muscular  motion,  or  of  quick- 
ening waves  or  pavements  into  speech.  The  condition 
has  therefore  no  inherent  sufficiency,  or  even  similarity, 
to  the  transcendent  result ;  and  the  power  of  God  is 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  51 

revealed  in  that  result,  to   the  eye  that  sees  clearly, 
in  really  the  most  marked  and  amazing  exhibition. 

See  how  Poetry  bears  its  unconscious  witness  to 
the  justness  of  this  argument.  When  the  artist  or 
the  enthusiast,  in  the  delirium  of  his  dream,  would 
try  to  form  the  conscious  Spirit,  indued  with  life  and 
personally  active,  he  seeks  the  most  subtle  and  ethereal 
element  within  the  compass  of  all  known  nature. 
He  tries  to  come  nearest  the  level  of  his  effect  in 
the  means  which  he  employs.  Air,  light,  j&re,  foam, 
electric  forces,  chemical  agencies — these  are  the  imple- 
ments which  he  would  subordinate.  The  goddess  of 
the  Grreek  mythology  springs  from  the  crest  of  the 
curling  sea.  The  Spirit  of  poetic  and  legendary  lore 
is  born  of  moonbeams  playing  upon  fountains.  The 
glittering  elf  of  the  household  story  leaps  up  on  the 
shaft  of  the  quivering  flame.  The  meteor  is  invoked, 
or  the  morning-star,  to  give  birth  to  new  spirits  ;  the 
sunset-sheen  on  distant  hills  is  imagined  to  become  in^ 
corporate  in  them ;  or  the  west-wind,  toying  over  banks 
of  flowers,  to  drop  their  delicate  life  from  its  wings. 
But  when  God  forms  the  Life,  in  each  conscious 
soul,  and  fills  this  with  its  strange  and  unsearchable 
powers,  he  creates  it  by  a  ministry  diverse  from  all 
these,  and  as  distantly  removed  as  it  is  possible  to 
conceive  from  its  own  unique  nature,  and  its  height 
of  prerogative.     He  creates  it  by  the  ministry  of  these 


fS  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

fleshly  forms ;  which  are  authors,  under  Him,  of  a  life 
that  transcends  them;  a  life  not  limited  as  they  are 
by  space,  not  subject  as  they  are  to  material  assaults, 
and  not  dependent  as  they  are  on  shelter  or  on  food. 
Herein,  then,  is  revealed,  in  most  evident  demonstra- 
tion, the  omnipotence  of  God ;  and  in  every  birth  is 
shown  a  real  miracle ! 

And  manifest  as  is  God's  power  in  this  arrangement, 
how  manifest  are  also  his  goodness  and  his  wisdom, 
which  set  the  personal  life  of  each  in  such  intimate 
relations  with  the  life  of  all  others,  and  without 
abridging  its  completeness  and  unity,  interhnk  it 
with  all  the  successions  of  the  Race !  Consider  the 
incessant  and  far-reaching  play  of  all  human  sympathies, 
the  foundation  for  which  is  laid  thus  in  our  constitution ; 
the  impulse  to  affection  between  parents  and  children, 
to  the  fourth  generation,  which  results  directly  from 
this  arrangement,  this  interdependence  of  one  life  on 
another.  Consider  the  educating  demand  which  is 
made  by  it  on  each  generation;  in  the  fact  that  the 
next  is  to  draw  its  life  through  this,  and  that  that 
life,  in  its  first  rudimental  state,  shall  be  committed 
to  this,  to  nurture  and  protect  it.  Observe  what  a  vast 
and  incalculable  premium  is  put  upon  virtue  and  moral 
refinement  in  each  generation,  by  the  fact  that  the 
influence  of  these  shall  be  transmitted  and  inherited  by 
children,  shall  be  further  handed  on,  and  shall  thus  at 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE,  53 

a  thousand  further  points,  along  the  progress  of  the 
continuance  of  the  race,  like  the  long-concealed  stream 
of  classic  story,  burst  forth  to  light,  and  shine  in 
beauty.  And  consider  the  immense  and  most  vital 
inheritance  which  is  gradually  thus  gathered — ^an  in- 
heritance not  so  much  of  knowledge  or  science,  or 
any  outward  possession,  as  of  courage,  faith,  moral  force 
and  attainment — to  be  possessed  by  the  children  of  a 
virtuous  ancestry;  with  what  instincts  their  earliest 
life  is  imbued,  with  what  an  influence  it  is  invested, 
which  come  to  it  only  through  this  constitution. 

Of  course  there  are  perils  as  well  as  benefits  con- 
nected with  this.  For  it  is  a  principle  which  we  must 
every  where  take  with  us,  in  trying  to  interpret  the 
operations  of  God,  that  every  benefaction  has  its  side  of 
danger.  It  is  so  with  us,  as  well  as  with  our  Author. 
Your  compassion  toward  the  destitute  may  stimulate 
indolence,  instead  of  quickening  to  generous  effort. 
The  fire  which  warms  us  with  its  peaceful  glow,  will 
scathe  us  as  freely,  and  desolate  our  home,  if  we  neglect 
its  admonitions.  And  the  light  which  covers  with  a 
radiant  benediction,  like  the  smile  of  its  Creator,  the 
whole  visible  Universe,  becomes  to  the  eye  diseased  and 
irritable  the  occasion  of  pain.  And  so  the  arrangement 
which  makes  the  personal  life  in  each  soul  to  be 
transmitted  to  it  through  the  action  of  its  parents,  thus 
setting  it  in  intimate  and   organic   relations   with   all 


54 

that  hath  preceded,  with  all  that  now  surrounds  it, 
may  be  made  by  mans  vice  an  occasion  of  disaster; 
and  he  who  will  not  heed  the  intimations  which  are 
brought  to  him  by  this  marvellous  plan,  and  will  not 
elevate  his  life  into  harmony  with  its  grandeur,  may 
transmit  to  his  offspring  a  congenital  impurity,  impress- 
ing his  own  corruptness  upon  their  being.  We  see 
these  inherent  possibilities  illustrated,  with  terrible  dis- 
tinctness, in  every  depraved  and  degraded  household. 
We  see  them  displayed  among  all  savage  nations. 
Indeed,  the  history  of  the  race,  thus  far,  except  as 
Christianity  has  intervened  to  renew  it,  has  been  hardly 
more  than  their  constant  exhibition. 

But  with  all  these  liabilities,  how  wise  in  its  nature, 
how  benign  in  its  tendencies,  is  this  constitution ;  how 
amply  does  it  justify  God  to  us ;  with  what  privilege 
and  opportunity  does  it  endow  each  life !  Your  Soul, 
and  mine,  through  this  arrangement,  while  separate 
and  personally  complete  in  each  of  us,  so  revealed  to 
our  consciousness,  so  attested  by  others,  is  isolated  in 
neither.  It  is  set  apart  in  no  one  of  us,  in  a  sohtude 
of  nature,  from  the  equal  souls  in  others ;  but  is  knit  to 
them,  and  interlocked  with  them,  by  many  affiliations. 
It  is  related  to  the  Past.  It  is  what  it  is  in  each  of 
us,  partly  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  Homer  sang  in 
the  earhest  Greece,  that  Plato  mused  beneath  the  plane- 
trees;    that  prophets  preached,   and  martyrs   died,  in 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  55 

their  far  ages;  and  that  they  to  whom  our  life  was 
entrusted  in  its  earliest  developement,  and  who  in 
some  measure  impressed  themselves  on  it,  had  taken 
of  the  influence  of  such  a  Past.  And  tv^e  in  oiir  turn 
are  animated  by  the  fact  to  a  higher  endeavor,  in  the 
effort  after  courage,  virtue,  and  all  moral  grace,  that 
the  life  transmitted  through  us  to  others  may  be  still 
nobler;  that  happier  circumstances,  and  a  more  genial 
influence,  may  infold  that  at  the  outset ;  that  its  whole 
developement  may  be  more  lofty.  It  reaches  over  ages, 
this  peculiar  constitution,  and  makes  the  earliest  day, 
the  latest  cycle,  strike  hands  together.  We  stand 
midway  along  the  course  of  its  gradual  operation ;  and 
the  grandest  and  crowning  results  of  it  shall  only  be 
seen  amid  that  Future  for  which  humanity  hopes  and 
for  which  faith  watches,  when  the  triumph  and  peace 
of  a  perfect  moral  culture,  wrought  out  by  centuries 
of  slow  struggle  and  advance,  shall  become  the  opulent 
inheritance  of  the  Race ;  when  each  moral  person,  in 
all  the  completeness  of  his  separate  life,  shall  receive 
as  his  inestimable  birthright  a  native  supremacy  over 
evil  and  doubt!  It  will  be  se^n  then,  by  all  who 
consider  it,  a  not  more  manifest  trophy  of  God's 
power,  than  it  is  of  his  infinite  goodness  and  wisdom, 
that  this  Life  in  each  soul,  while  so  high  in  its  nature 
and  so  personal  in  each,  essentially  independent,  in 
no  degree  physically  commingled   with  any  other,   is 


si  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

transmitted  to  each  through  the  ministry  of  parents, 
and  thus  is  set  in  an  inward  relation  with  the  life  of  all 
others !  Redemption  itself  shall  then  be  seen  to  have 
been  reared  upon  the  root  of  this  constitution;  with 
Millennium  for  its  fruit! 

IV.  I  have  only  a  single  point  to  add  to  those  which 
I  have  suggested,  and  the  aim  of  the  present  lecture 
is  fulfilled.  It  is,  that  the  Life  which  is  given  to  each 
soul,  which  is  personal  in  each,  and  yet  is  so  related 
to  the  similar  life  in  others,  is  constituted  for  contin- 
uance, AND  ALSO  FOR  ADVANCEMENT:  it  has  the  element 
and  the  expectation  within  itself  of  evolution  and 
progress.     This  sets  it  fully  and  clearly  before  us. 

Wherever  we  find  life,  there  we  find  a  certain 
tendency  to  developement  and  advancement ;  in  the 
flower  or  the  tree,  or  the  animal  organism.  This 
characterizes  Life,  and  sets  it  apart  from  all  other 
forces.  A  spring  of  air  never  loses  its  elasticity ;  but 
it  never  gains  an  energy  which  it  had  not  at  first. 
Though  pressed  a  thousand  years  under  incumbent 
weights,  the  instant  they  are  removed  it  reassumes 
its  original  volume;  but  it  gathers  no  more  from  the 
long  repose.  But  the  life  in  the  seed  tends  constantly 
toward  developement,  into  the  stalk,  the  blossom  and 
the  fruit.  As  long  as  the  seed  remains,  perfect  and 
vital,  this  tendency  remains,  inhering  in  it;  so  that 
three   thousand   years   after  it   was   shaken  from  the 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  57 

wheat-ear   on  the   Nile,   if  planted   it   developes   and 
brings  forth  fruit  in  English  gardens. 

But  in  the  plant,  or  the  animal  structure,  the  peculi- 
arity of  this  tendency  is,  that  it  acts  within  narrow  and 
definite  limits,  and  does  not  point  to  high  attainments. 
In  the  life  of  the  Soul  its  peculiarity  is,  that  there  it 
is  stronger  than  anywhere  else,  that  the  attainment 
to  which  it  points  is  indefinite  and  ideal,  and  that 
the  limits  which  must  arrest  it,  if  such  there  are,  are 
not  yet  apparent.  Each  faculty  embraced  in  our 
spiritual  being  reveals  the  same  tejidency.  The  power 
of  thinking,  the  power  of  loving,  are  both  alike  in 
this  regard.  The  power  to  perceive  and  interpret  one 
fact,  leads  necessarily  towards,  if  it  does  not  involve, 
the  power  to  apprehend  and  investigate  others,  to 
unfold  their  laws,  and  to  arrange  them  in  a  system; 
and  thus  it  directly  prophesies  the  power  of  gradually 
ascending  from  one  fact  to  another,  from  one  series 
to  a  higher,  as  the  range  of  experience  and  observation 
is  enlarged,  till  the  sphere  of  existence  amid  which 
we  are  placed  shall  be  measured  and  understood. 
The  faculty  for  loving  a  single  friend  holds  within  it 
the  germ  and  the  predictiori  of  a  faculty,  which  if 
fully  developed  shall  encompass  all  beings  with  an 
appropriate  affection,  and  be  still  unimpaired  by  the 
largest  exercise.  And  thus  our  infancy  bears  the 
presage  of  great  Futures.     Our  Life  is  not  only  pre- 


68  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

pared  for  such ;  by  innate  tendency  it  anticipates  such, 
and  rises  towards  them.  We  have  an  ideal  of  spiritual 
completeness,  which  is  not  determinate,  like  the  plan 
of  the  completion  of  the  flower  or  the  tree;  which 
ever  recedes  as  we  advance,  as  the  line  of  the  horizon 
retreats  before  the  sailor,  at  each  moment  unattained, 
but  therefore  at  each  moment  inviting  and  inciting  to 
a  further  advance.  Our  want  of  satisfaction  in  any 
spiritual  attainment  shows  us  fitted  for  a  higher,  and 
is  a  continual  irritant  within  us  impelling  us  to  attempt 
that.  The  soul  refuses  to  be  limited  to  one  thought; 
but  instantly,  while  it  considers  that,  it  has  shot  forth 
to  others,  and  the  images  it  has  gathered  have  become 
multitudinous.  It  will  not  consent  to  be  shut  up  to 
one  science;  but  immediately,  when  it  has  explored 
that  science,  it  is  searching  around  it  on  every  side, 
and  seeking  to  adjust  it  in  its  normal  relations  to  the 
universal  Cosmos.  Its  affections  will  not  be  limited 
to  the  family ;  but  patriotism  becomes  to  it  as  real  an 
experience  as  fireside  love;  and  philanthropy,  which 
is  nobler,  and  is  conscious  of  no  boundaries — and 
piety,  which  goes  up  with  its  ardent  offering  to  the 
very  throne  of  the  Eternal,  and  with  undazzled  sight 
lays  its  praises  before  Him — are  both  possible  to  it. 
The  soul,  in  its  pure  state,  when  acting  according  to 
the  law  of  its  constitution,  is  fitted  to  love  all  those 
whom  it  hath  seen;   it  aspires  towards  those  whom  it 


ENDOWED    WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  59 

has  not  yet  seen,  and  is  qualified  to  love  Principalities 
and  Powers,  and  to  meet  with  the  recognizing  glance 
of  affection  every  value  in  character,  wherever  that  is 
shown. 

The  tendency  to  advancement  is  therefore  innate  to 
it;  and  the  terms  which  surround  this,  and  limit  its 
operation,  are  not  apparent.  Shall  it  stop  with  old 
age,  the  decline  of  the  body?  But  any  apparent 
pause  at  that  period  is  adequately  explained  by  the 
increasing  debility  of  this  instrument  of  the  frame, 
which  the  soul  must  employ;  and  indications  are  not 
wanting,  they  even  abound,  in  the  lofty  and  singular 
wisdom  of  age,  that  there  too  this  progress  may  still  go 
forward,  and  that  no  increase  of  infirmity  shall  arrest 
it.  Shall  it  stop  with  Death?  the  final  dissolution 
of  the  physical  mechanism?  But  taking  away  the 
hand,  or  the  foot,  does  not  limit  or  impede  it ;  nor  does 
blotting  out  the  eye,  or  cutting  off  the  tongue.  Amid 
all  such  outward  deprivation  of  members,  the  Soul  still 
lives,  supreme  and  young,  untouched  by  mutilation; 
and  even  the  pain,  which  searches  the  frame,  only 
quickens  this  often  to  a  more  intense  and  imperious 
activity.  Shall  any  experience  of  hardship  and  dis- 
couragement arrest  this  tendency  ?  But  it  is  interesting 
and  very  instructive  to  observe,  how  each  experience 
which  is  met  by  the  soul,  and  is  mastered  or  endured 
by  it,  becomes  a  fresh  helper  to  its  developement;  the 


60  THEHUMANSOUL, 

temptation  and  the  sorrow  as  well  as  the  science,  the 
failure  and  the  fall  as  well  as  the  victory,  affording 
occasion  for  new  endeavor;  and  all  the  rough  experi- 
ences of  the  world  but  disciplining  the  force  which 
they  cannot  break  down. 

Where  is  the  limit,  then,  to  the  continuance  and  the 
advancement  of  that  self-conscious  Life  which  the  soul 
holds  within  it  ?  a  continuance,  and  an  advancement,  of 
which  the  quick  and  urgent  prophecies  abound  around 
us.  We  cannot  discern  it.  We  are  instinctively 
impelled  to  believe  that  it  outlies,  at  least,  our  present 
range  of  vision  or  of  anticipation;  that  disaster  does 
not  furnish,  and  death  does  not  fix  it ;  that  when  the 
body  has  been  altogether  shorn  away  from  the  Soul — 
when  every  stone  and  beam  and  bolt  in  this  building 
for  it  has  failed — that  Soul,  in  its  separate  and  spiritual 
life,  released  to  a  more  triumphant  activity,  may  march 
with  grander  step  across  the  immense  domain  of  truth, 
and  may  pour  from  itself,  over  wider  realms  of  being,  a 
more  unchecked  and  copious  love.  So  it  may  be  !  So 
it  shall  be!  Philosophy  herself  takes  cognizance  of 
the  prospect,  and  Religion  incorporates  it  among  her 
verities.  It  is  one  of  the  certainties  of  Christianity, 
and  not  less  a  suggestion  of  true  mental  science.  The 
capacities  for  progress  which  inhere  in  this  so  mar- 
vellous life,  the  soaring  aspirations  that  refuse  to  be 
satisfied  with  any  thing  terrestrial,  that  have 


ENDOWED     WITH    PERSONAL    LIFE.  61 

"An  Ideal  too  sublime 

For  the  low-hung  sky  of  Time/* 

that  transcend  distances,  years,  and  history,  and  tread 
upon  the  stars  as  on  the  dust  of  their  temporary  pave- 
ment, and  that  cannot  rest  outside  of  or  beneath  the 
Beatific  Vision — ^these  foretell  an  indefinite  evolution 
of  force,  a  still  advancing  and  culminating  progress,  as 
possible  for  each  personal  and  self-conscious  spirit. 

And  so  is  revealed,  most  fully  and  finally,  the  august 
dignity,  the  transcendent  value,  of  the  Life  committed 
to  that;  the  power,  the  wisdom,  and  the  goodness  of 
Him  who  hath  wonderfully  formed  it!  He  has  given 
this  Life,  which  we  cannot  understand  in  the  mystery 
of  its  nature.  He  has  made  this  Life  personal,  indi- 
"vddual  in  each;  with  a  yet  stranger  power  dissecting 
it  out  from  the  consciousness  of  all  others,  even 
severing  it  radically  from  His  own  eternal  being,  so 
that  it  hath  its  forces  and  its  sphere,  as  distinct  as 
His  own,  and  its  own  responsibility.  And  yet,  at  the 
same  time.  He  has  subtly  connected  the  communication 
of  this  Life  with  the  action  of  parents,  thus  making  the 
Race  inter-dependent  and  historic,  organically  relating 
each  person  to  all  others.  And  then  He  sets  upon  the 
soul,  thus  stocked  with  life,  the  crown  which  is  given 
this  by  its  vast  capacity  for  developement  and  progress. 
He  forms  it  full  of  the  presages,  quick  with  the  germs, 
of  indefinite  evolution ! 


62  THEHUMANSOUL, 

Herein  then  is  revealed,  in  the  very  being  of  the 
Soul,  in  its  endowment  of  existence,  in  most  evident 
exhibition,  the  glorious  character  and  power  of  the 
Creator.  This  is  His  topmost  work  on  earth.  On 
this,  as  the  summit  of  the  terrestrial  system,  lying  but 
just  beneath  His  creative  mind,  we  properly  take  our 
primary  stand,  in  contemplating  His  works.  No  wonder 
that  according  to  the  majestic  imagination  of  the  poet 
of  Paradise,  when  Man  was  made, 

"  A  creature,  who,  not  prone 
And  brute,  as  other  creatures,  but  endued 
With  sanctity  of  Reason,  might  erect 
His  stature,  and  upright,  with  front  serene, 
Govern  the  rest,  self-knowing;" — 
*  *  *  *  "the  harp 

Had  work,  and  rested  not;  the  solemn  pipe 
And  dulcimer,  all  organs  of  sweet  stop. 
All  sounds  on  fret,  by  string  or  golden  wire, 
Tempered  soft  tunings,  intermixed  with  voice, 
Choral  or  unison;     *    *     *    the  Empyrean 
Rang  with  hallelujahs.     Thus  was  the  Sabbath  keptP 

Hence,  from  the  centre,  we  may  survey  the  circle, 
even  outward  to  the  periphery.  From  this  high  sum- 
mit, shall  spread  before  us  the  landscape  of  nature; 
and  God,  I  am  sure,  shall  be  seen  in  it  all!  But 
before  we  go  forth  to  other  provinces  of  the  creation 
which  tarry  for  our  study,  we  must  pause  yet  a  little 


ENDOWED     WITH     PERSONAL     LIFE.  63 

longer  upon  this,  and  consider  the  Soul,  whose  marvel- 
lous endowment  of  life  has  thus  been,  shown  us,  in  other 
and  more  particular  relations.  We  must  measure  it 
against  each  of  the  Ideal  Goods  which  it  is  fitted  to 
realize,  before  we  can  fully  understand  or  appreciate  it. 
As  capable  of  Knowledge,  of  Virtue,  and  of  Happiness, 
so  we  must  study  it ;  as  capable  by  its  constitution  of 
Beneficent  Action,  framed  for  this,  pressed  towards  it, 
by  an  impulse  in  its  being;  and,  finally,  as  capable  of 
a  free,  majestic,  and  unsearchable  progress  amid  the 
Future.  So  regarding  the  Soul,  which  God  hath 
ordained  to  be  His  personal  representative  on  earth, 
we  shall  see,  I  am  sure.  His  wisdom  revealed  in  all  its 
frame.  And  then,  in  the  light  which  shines  from  this, 
His  other  works  shall  be  interpreted  to  us ;  and  all  shall 
be  shown,  radiant  at  each  point,  like  fields  laden  with 
dew  at  morning,  with  the  tokens  of  a  kindness  that  like 
the  dew  hath  been  dispensed,  in  gracious  stillness,  but 
in  boundless  profusion,  from  the  Benignity  on  high! 


LECTURE    11. 

Ladies  and.  Gentlemen  : 

In  the  Lecture  with  which  I  commenced  this 
series,  I  delineated  briefly  the  plan  which  their  Founder 
designed  to  have  realized,  and  which  the  managers 
of  his  Trust  propose  to  accomplish,  in  these  successive 
annual  courses.  That  plan,  conceived  in  a  religious 
and  reverent  spirit,  contemplates  the  exhibition,  year 
after  year,  of  the  Wisdom,  the  Goodness,  and  the 
Power  of  God,  as  these  are  made  evident  in  the  works 
of  creation.  The  character  and  the  power  of  the  Most 
High  are  the  theme,  which  must  underlie  all,  and 
preside  over  all ;  but  the  illustrations  of  it  are  to  be 
gathered,  not  from  the  Scriptures,  as  is  usual  in  the 
pulpit,  but  from  the  actual  frame  of  things,  which  lies 
in  part  within  ourselves,  which  arches  above  us,  and 
spreads  around  us  on  every  hand,  and  which  reason 
accepts  as  the  work  of  God's  mind.  Wherever  there 
are  bodies,  forces,  or  laws,  which  manifest  to  us  an 
Intelligent  Will,  designing,  arranging,  and  causing  them 
to  subsist,  thither  extends,  unlimited  otherwise  in  its 
bounteous  scope,  the  plan  of  these  Lectures.     Man  and 


66  THEHUMANSOUL 


the  earth,  the  shell-fish  and  the  sun,  rocks,  jewels, 
metals,  mountains,  all  animals  and  plants,  seas  and 
their  tides,  the  atmosphere  and  its  changes,  impon- 
derable elements  as  well  as  organized  frames  and 
structures,  or  the  uses  and  the  changes  of  inorganic 
masses — all  may  be  brought  to  testify  of  God.  The 
progress  of  History,  too,  the  recorded  develop ement 
of  those  spiritual  forces  which  He  has  implanted  in 
man  his  subject,  and  the  operations  of  his  Providence 
wherever  he  has  manifestly  intervened  to  overrule 
these,  are  legitimate  to  these  discourses.  And  the 
design  of  their  Founder  will  only  then  have  been 
reahzed,  when  from  these  all  has  been  unfolded  an 
exhibition,  more  vivid  and  more  impressive  than  would 
otherwise  have  been  possible,  of  the  omnipotence  which 
formed,  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  which  planned 
and  which  guide,  this  complex,  outreaching  and  inter- 
volved  system.  Indeed,  the  plan  can  never  cease  to 
need  fresh  accomplishment,  as  the  researches  of  science 
bring  to  light  fresh  phenomena,  or  interpret  the  facts 
already  observed  into  higher,  more  recondite  and  more 
perfect  laws,  revealing  more  clearly  the  mind  of  their 
Author. 

Amid  the  broad,  the  unbounded  domain,  thus  opened 
before  us — unbounded,  except  by  that  term  on  the  one 
hand  which  the  microscope  cannot  find,  and  that  term 
on  the  other  hand  which  the  telescope  cannot  see — 


at 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  67 

each  Lecturer  is  to  take  his  particular  province;  and 
by  the  more  thorough  exposition  of  that,  is  to  exhibit 
more  clearly  the  secrets  of  character  and  the  mysteries 
of  force  which  are  lodged  within  it.  So — even  as  in  the 
building,  the  completeness  of  each  part  is  the  condition 
of  the  completeness  of  aU  when  assembled,  and  the 
statue  in  its  niche  must  be  just  as  apt  and  as  perfect 
in  its  relations  as  the  buttress  or  the  spire,  in  order 
to  the  proportionate  finish  of  the  edifice — so,  in  this 
system  of  Lectures,  continued  perhaps  through  many 
generations,  each  department  of  the  creation  should  be 
adequately  treated,  in  order  to  the  final  completeness 
of  the  result.  The  mosses  on  the  rock,  as  well  as  the 
trees  that  bend  stately  above  them,  the  birds  that  fly 
and  sing  in  heaven,  as  well  as  the  clouds  that  gather 
and  dissolve  there,  the  mimosa  that  closes  its  sensitive 
petals  if  a  footfall  approaches,  and  the  stars  that  reign 
silent  on  empyreal  thrones — each  must  in  turn  give 
witness  to  the  Most  High;  tUl  the  frame  of  Creation 
shall  be  aU  eclaircised,  not  so  much  a  piUar  engraven 
around  with  the  trophies  of  Omnipotence,  as  a  solid 
but  transparent  sphere  of  crystal,  lighted  from  within 
by  the  calm  thought  of  God ! 

The  province  which  I  have  selected  for  my  own,  not 
more  because  of  preference  than  because  of  the  con- 
trolling suggestions  of  my  position,  as  the  first  in  the 
series  of  these  annual  Lecturers,  is  the  constitution  of 


68  THEHUMANSOUL, 

the  Soul  of  Man;  of  that  living  and  energizing  principle 
within  us,  which  we  receive  by  bestowment  of  God, 
and  which  makes  us  what  we  are;  itself  superior  to 
all  else  which  we  possess;  itself  the  ground  of  all 
other  possessions.  It  is  manifest  that  this  is  the 
highest  thing  on  earth.  It  is  higher  than  the  body, 
and  gives  to  that  its  validity  and  value.  It  is  higher, 
absolutely,  than  any  thing  around  us  ;  higher  in 
capacity,  in  essence,  and  in  worth.  The  mountain  is 
vast  in  size  and  weight.  The  weary  feet  clamber  over 
it  painfully.  It  offers  homes  along  its  breast  to  the 
enterprise  which  seeks  them.  Its  quarries  build 
palaces,  and  its  woods  timber  navies.  It  lifts  its  crown 
of  snow  and  ice  against  the  sky,  and  stands  amid  the 
scene  a  very  monarch  of  earth,  primaeval  and  abiding. 
But  the  soul  can  compass  that  mountain  in  its  thought, 
without  weariness  or  pain;  can  take  it  up  and  weigh 
it,  in  the  balances  of  exact  mathematical  computation ; 
and  spurning  it  then,  as  a  mere  footstool  for  its 
activity,  can  spring  from  it  to  that  boundless  expanse 
amid  which  the  mountain  is  less  than  is  the  least  of 
the  dust-grains  of  the  balance  to  its  solid  bulk.  No 
element  is  so  rare,  no  substance  is  so  costly,  no  other 
life  is  so  delicate  and  ethereal,  that  it  can  be  matched 
as  an  equal  with  the  Soul.  This  stands  back  of  all 
operation  of  man ;  of  war  and  diplomacy,  of  religion 
and  of  science,  of  art  and   literature,   of  society  and 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  69 

of  government.  Itself  unseen  and  inaccessible,  it  scans 
all  else.  Itself  unreached  by  any  sense,  it  feels  or 
suffers  whatever  we  experience.  The  moment  it  has 
left  the  body,  you  may  hew  that  to  pieces,  or  burn 
it  to  ashes,  without  causing  a  throb  of  sensation  within 
it.  But  so  long  as  this  remains,  it  vitalizes  the  body, 
surveys  nature,  reaches  outward  to  the  Unseen ;  exam- 
ines, and  either  accepts  or  rejects  with  its  own  free 
activity,  what  claim  to  be  Revelations  ;  is  the  actor 
or  the  sufferer  in  all  the  successes  and  the  endurances 
of  life.  It  transcends  constitutionally,  in  its  being 
and  its  action,  the  limitations  of  space.  It  surpasses 
and  oversteps  the  boundaries  of  time.  It  is,  as  in- 
tuitively and  inevitably  it  is  recognized  by  every 
observer,  the  highest  existence  within  the  compass  of 
that  portion  of  the  Creation  which  is  as  yet  accessible 
to  our  study.  And  as  thus  first  in  importance  and 
dignity,  transcendent  in  its  essence,  it  is  first  to  be 
examined  in  considering  God's  works. 

And  as  we  contemplate  the  constitution  of  the 
Soul,  certain  things  become  apparent  in  it  immediately 
and  clearly  demonstrating  God  in  it,  and  illustrating 
the  character  and  the  power  which  have  formed  it. 
It  presents  itself  to  us,  the  moment  we  regard  it,  as 
a  Repository  of  Life  :  endowed  with  this  Life  by  the 
win  of  the  Creator,  and  consciously  replete  with  it. 
And  in  this   its   primary  aspect  and  relation,  it  chal- 


70 


lenges  our  wonder,  and  stimulates  our  praise.  For 
the  Life  thus  imparted  to  the  soul,  and  by  it  thenceforth 
possessed  and  infolded,  is  a  spiritual  force  incomprehen- 
sible by  us.  We  cannot  produce  it  in  any  foreign 
substance,  through  any  operation  which  we  can  put 
forth.  Nay,  we  cannot  understand  it,  as  it  subsists 
in  ourselves.  We  only  know  that  it  is,  and  is  active, 
and  that  we  ourselves  have  being  and  capacity  by 
reason  of  it.  It  refers  us  thus  at  once,  the  moment 
we  consider  it,  to  that  supreme  and  omnipotent  Will 
which  alone  could  have  created  it,  and  which  surpasses 
our  thought  as  the  cope  of  the  heavens  surpasses  the 
reach  of  our  hand. 

And  so,  for  another  thing,  this  Life  which  the  Soul 
by  its  constitution  holds  within  it,  its  elementary 
endowment,  is  not  general,  indeterminate,  as  air  is,  or 
light,  or  any  more  subtle  electrical  force,  but  it  is 
personal  in  each,  and  strictly  individual ;  divided  from 
all  other  Life  in  the  universe,  and  made  to  stand  and 
act  by  itself,  in  a  final,  self-conscious  and  perfect  unity. 
It  is  inwardly  and  by  nature  complete,  in  each  one ;  not 
capable  of  being  essentially  commingled  with  any  other ; 
fenced  out,  even,  and  divided  from  a  participation  in 
the  infinite  consciousness  of  the  mind  which  created 
it.  And  so  the  Soul  becomes  personal  and  responsible. 
While  sympathizing  with  others  it  is  set  apart  from 
them,  and  ordained  to  endure  and  to  work  for  itself. 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  71 

And  yet,  though  thus  perfect  and  individual  in 
each,  the  life  which  every  Soul  hath  within  it  has 
come  to  it,  hy  a  special  ordination  of  God,  in  trans- 
mission from  others ;  and  so  it  is  intimately  and 
organically  related  to  the  similar  Life  in  them  and  in 
all,  in  all  behind,  and  all  around  it.  The  race  of  human 
intelligences  is  thus  made  continuous  and  interdepend- 
ent ;  each  successive  generation  recei^dng  from  its  an- 
cestors, and  transmitting  to  its  posterity,  this  subtle, 
supreme,  and  inimitable  spirit  which  vitalizes  all,  and 
all  being  confederated  in  a  necessary  society. 

And,  finally,  the  Soul,  thus  planned  and  thus 
constituted,  and  thus  interlinked  by  its  constitution  of 
being  with  a  system  of  similar  and  equal  intelligences, 
is  pregnant  with  the  germs  and  is  prescient  of  the 
certainty  of  continuance  and  evolution.  It  finds  in 
every  living  faculty,  in  each  aptitude  for  culture  and 
each  sense  of  unperfectness,  as  weU  as  in  every  winged 
thought  and  each  ascending  aspiration  of  desire,  the 
promise  of  a  Future,  of  loftier  attainment.  It  wears 
upon  its  brow  the  prophecy  of  a  progress  unlimited  by 
any  bound  as  yet  evident. 

K  even  here,  then,  we  should  pass  from  this  theme, 
I  think  we  could  hardly  have  failed  to  receive  an 
impression  of  the  wisdom,  the  goodness,  and  the  power 
of  Him  who  conceived  and  who  framed  the  Human  Soul. 
Demonstrably,   God,   the  Infinite,  is   in  this;    with   a 


72 

force  which  we  cannot  search  out  to  perfection;  with 
a  spirit  of  character  which  we  never  can  properly  cease 
to  revere. 

But  now  going  forward  from  this  primary  view  of 
the  constitution  of  the  Soul,  it  is  proper  that  we 
consider  it  more  minutely  and  more  largely,  as  I 
intimated  before,  in  the  different  powers  that  are 
associated  within  it ;  especially  as  these  relate  it  to  the 
goods  which  all  must  feel  to  be  desirable  for  it;  for 
which,  indeed,  the  instinctive  affirmations  of  every  soul 
declare  it  to  have  been  formed.  As  related  to 
Knowledge,  to  Virtue,  to  Virtuous  and  Ben^ificent 
Operation  upon  others,  as  related  to  Happiness,  as 
related  above  all  to  a  Future  Career  of  enjoyment 
and  of  usefulness,  how,  and  how  amply,  is  it  furnished 
with  powers  by  the  gift  of  its  Creator  ?  We  must  test 
it  thus,  we  must  measure  it  against  these  supreme 
Ideals,  which  the  intuitive  conviction  of  all  men  accepts 
as  expressing  the  highest  attainments  of  the  Soul,  in 
order  to  estimate  it ;  to  see  how  clearly  and  how  com- 
prehensively its  author  is  displayed  in  it.  And  the 
answers  to  these  successive  questions,  as  we  reach 
them  one  by  one,  will  exhibit  to  us  fully  the  insignia 
of  His  power,  and  the  illustrations  of  His  character, 
so  far  as  these  are  found  in  this  living,  personal,  and 
advancing  spirit. 
•     In  the  present   Lecture  I  propose   to   consider   the 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  73 

constitution  of  the  Soul  as  related  to  the  first  of  these, 
to  the  attainment  of  Knowledge;  and  to  show  how 
discreetly  and  how  richly  it  is  equipped  for  realizing 
this  good.  The  others  will  follow  this,  in  a  natural 
order.  This  meets  us  at  the  threshold,  and  is  first  to 
be  considered. 

I.  Take,  then,  in  the  first  instance,  what  is  usually 
called  the  faculty  of  Perception;  the  power,  that  is, 
which  the  Soul  possesses,  of  apprehending  and  ohserving 
that  tvhich  is  without  it;  the  power  which  lies  nearest 
our  consciousness  of  being,  and  which  is  the  first  to 
be  unfolded  in  our  mental  operations.  This  power  is 
universal.  It  is  none  the  less  wonderful  because  it  is 
universal. 

The  child,  on  awaking  to  the  sense  of  existence, 
looks  up  to  the  loving  face  of  the  mother  bending 
tenderly  over  it,  sufiused  with  the  tears  perhaps  of 
maternal  anxiety,  but  with  a  radiant  bloom  of  happiness 
beaming  through  those  tears,  as  the  smiling  sunshine 
beams  through  raindrops,  till  a  very  bow  of  promises 
spreads  all  around  it.  It  sees  the  form  of  the  father, 
beside  this ;  the  forms  of  attendants ;  the  new-discov- 
ered aspects  of  the  room  and  its  furniture.  Vaguely 
and  darkly,  yet  really  and  instantly,  with  the  awakening 
of  consciousness,  it  reaches  forth  to  these  phenomena 
of  an  outward  existence,  and  an  undefined  perception 
of  them  becomes   impressed  upon  its   thought.     And 


74 

continually,  as  that  child's  mind  conies  to  further 
developement,  it  apprehends  these  things  which  are 
around  and  above  it,  -with  greater  clearness,  exactness 
and  completeness,  and  extends  its  observations  over  a 
more  ample  range.  At  last,  it  sees  all  things  exterior 
to  itself,  yet  accessible  to  its  senses,  easily  and  fully ; 
and  is  bent  on  exploring,  to  the  laws  which  are  beneath 
them,  the  appearances  which  confront  it. 

We  live  thus,  and  move,  at  each  instant  of  our  being, 
in  the  midst  of  a  universe  which  the  Soul  has 
discovered,  and  which  is  to  each  one  as  recent  and 
complete  as  if  no  other  had  ever  seen  it.  The  daisy 
brightening  in  the  shadow  of  the  hedge-row,  or  strewing 
the  fields  as  with  golden  flakes  ;  the  trees  spreading 
their  whispering  roof  of  tremulous  foliage,  or  holding 
against  the  blast  their  rugged  arms,  inlocked  with 
a  trunk  deep-set  and  rooted  ;  brooks,  lapsing  or  leaping 
from  their  summit  springs ;  the  ocean,  which  takes 
these  to  itself,  without  an  added  ripple  on  its  bays,  or 
an  increase  of  its  tides ;  all  sounds,  of  mirth,  or 
suffering,  or  fear;  the  drowsy  hum  of  multitudinous 
insects ;  the  arrowy  song  of  birds,  swifter  than  wings, 
aspiring  to  the  skies;  all  forms  and  tones  of  human 
life ;  the  immeasurable  azure  which  is  over  us  every- 
where, brilliant  with  stars,  or  flecked  with  clouds,  or 
made  the  blue  and  boundless  realm  of  the  victorious 
Sun ; — all  these,  and  all  the  visible  system  which  these 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  75 

but  partly  represent,  the  Soul  perceives.  It  goes  out 
to  them,  in  its  observant,  inspecting  glance.  It  meets 
and  hears  them,  if  they  are  vocal,  with  its  attent  sense. 
It  apprehends  them  all,  arranges  them  in  their  natural 
and  obvious  order,  assigns  to  each  its  place  and  service, 
and  lives  amid  them  as  in  a  home  reared  for  it  and 
furniture d  at  the  commencement  of  its  being.  It 
in  a  sense  masters,  appropriates  these  things,  which 
are  without  and  beyond  it,  through  its  inherent  and 
dominating  faculty  of  observation;  and  so  it  feels, 
instinctively,  that  they  were  made  for  it  and  its  uses, 
not  it  for  them. 

Observe  then  this  faculty,  so  signal  and  occult,  yet 
common  to  aU  men,  a  part  of  the  native  endowment 
of  the  Soul.  See  not  only  how  indispensable  and  how 
effective  it  is,  in  fitting  us  to  gain  knowledge,  but  what 
mysteries  of  Wisdom  and  what  supremacy  of  Power 
are  revealed  in  the  gift  of  it  to  the  personal  yet 
impalpable  spirit  within  us.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  the 
EYE  sees  these  phenomena ;  that  the  ear,  through  its 
delicate  and  harmonious  constitution,  becomes  sensitive 
to  these  sounds  and  cadences  of  the  creation.  The 
eye  sees  nothing,  except  the  soul  be  behind  it.  The 
ear  is  not  quickly  alive  to  melodies,  if  the  spirit  that 
listened  and  responded  within  has  ceased  to  make  it 
the  avenue  of  sensation.  Each  outward  organ  is  a 
gateway,  and  nothing  more,  through   which  the    Soul 


76  THEHUMANSOUL, 

goes  forth  to  meet  the  impressions  of  the  world ; 
through  which  these  come  in  turn  to  seek  it,  bringing 
their  gifts  of  frankincense  and  myrrh.  Every  organ 
is  as  perfect  in  its  physical  conformation,  the  moment 
after  the  spirit  has  left  the  body,  as  the  moment  before 
this ;  yet  the  change  is  from  perfect  sensibility  and 
activity  to  utter  deadness.  The  personal  faculty  that 
perceives  and  observes,  is  behind  all  these.  It  is 
lodged  in  the  Soul,  and  belongs  to  that  as  a  nature. 

From  whence  does  that  gain  it  ?  How  is  it  enabled 
to  use  this  eye,  this  ear,  this  hand,  and  all  these 
solid  and  physical  instruments,  to  bring  itself  into 
connection  with  the  universe  around  it?  We  cannot 
answer,  except  with  the  response  of  affectionate  rever- 
ence to  Him  who  created  it.  No  anatomist  can  unfold 
to  us  the  secret  of  this  faculty,  the  ^hiding  of  its 
power.'  We  follow  the  lines  of  the  sensible  structure, 
we  penetrate  its  recesses,  we  analyse  the  relations  of 
each  part  to  the  rest,  as  his  expert  science  discloses 
them  to  us ;  we  set  them  all  up  again,  in  their  organic 
and  perfect  frame ;  but  we  get  no  answer  to  this 
searching  question.  '  Thou  hast  not  yet  attained,'  is 
the  reply  which  comes  from  each  section  of  the  system ; 
the  answer  returned  from  the  interlocked  whole.  We 
pass  from  the  bones,  from  the  muscles  and  ligaments, 
from  the  veins  that  have  so  lately  been  filled  with 
currents,   from    the   delicate   membranes,   vessels,   and 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  77 

tissues,  to  the  nerves  which  are  beneath  them ;  and 
we  follow  these,  in  their  almost  vanishing  lines,  to  the 
brain  which  collects  them  in  its  ampler  substance,  and 
in  which  most  anatomists  place  the  shrine  of  the  spirit. 
But  still  we  have  gaiaed  no  answer  to  our  question. 
There  lies  the  nerve  dissected  before  us,  in  a  tangible 
form,  which  the  finger  may  lift,  and  the  eye,  as  assisted 
by  the  microscope,  examine;  and  now  there  is  no 
sensation  in  it.  You  may  twist  it  around  your  finger, 
you  may  snap  it  or  bum  it,  and  it  will  not  respond. 
It  is  simply  material,  and  therefore  blind.  And  there 
the  brain  lies,  poured  bodily  out  in  its  cellular  mass, 
white,  rounded,  and  as  passive  before  the  touch,  as 
dead  to  all  impression,  as  the  branch  of  the  coral  reef. 

The  anatomist,  therefore,  has  not  helped  us  a  particle, 
with  all  his  nimble  and  careful  skill.  He  has  not 
advanced  us  a  step  on  our  way  to  the  solution  of  this 
mystery  :  How  is  it  that  the  Soul,  which  is  spiritual, 
invisible,  can  look  out  through  this  matter  which  is 
sensible  and  opaque?  It  is  as  difficult  to  understand 
how  it  perceives  through  the  brain,  as  if  its  instrument 
of  inspection  were  the  flesh  or  the  bone.  We  can  no 
more  comprehend  how  the  delicate  nerve  is  made  its 
minister,  than  how  the  hardier  muscle  could  be,  or  how 
the  hollow  tube  of  the  vein.  The  mystery  lies  in  the 
Soul  itself,  and  there  at  last  all  analysis  must  leave 
it;   in  that  sublime   and   unsearchable  constitution  by 


78  THEHUMANSOUL, 

which  He  who  formed  this  imponderable  spirit,  gave 
to  it  the  faculty  of  subordinating  the  material,  and  of 
looking  out  through  the  palpable  organs  on  all  that 
surrounds  it.  From  the  end  of  the  finest  attenuated 
nerve,  that  runs  inward  from  the  surface  to  the  citadel 
of  the  brain,  we  step  off  at  once  upon  this  mystery 
of  the  spirit.  We  confront  at  last  that  marvellous, 
subtle,  and  inestimable  faculty,  which  God  has  made 
to  reside  in  the  Soul,  by  which  it  becomes  the 
lord  of  the  body,  and  through  which,  though  never 
apparent  itself,  it  makes  the  universe  apparent  to  it ! 
Itself  infixed  within  the  body,  it  can  go  out  to  Sirius 
or  Canopus  in  its  scrutiny.  Itself  unheard  in  any 
movement,  it  can  catch  each  wave  of  melody  in  the 
air.  It  makes  the  whole  frame  transparent  around 
it;  and  while  it  remains  silent,  secret,  never  seen, 
even  at  that  moment  when  it  passes  from  the  body,  it 
sees,  apprehends,  and  examines  all  else,  as  if  it  went 
forth  on  wings  of  light,  as  if  it  actually  touched  and 
grappled  the  distant  and  the  near. 

II.  But  this  power  of  apprehending  and  observing 
what  is  without  it,  is  not  the  only,  nor  is  it  the  highest 
one,  which  the  soul  possesses,  through  which  it  becomes 
acquainted  with  the  various  forms  and  facts  of  exist- 
ence. It  has  also  what  is  usually  called  the  faculty 
of  Reflection  or  Introspection;  the  power,  that  is,  of 
observing  and  studying  Us  own  invisible  states  and  acts ; 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  79 

and  this  is  as  directly  related  as  the  other  to  the 
attainment  of  Knowledge. 

As  a  demonstrated  power,  consciously  and  intelli- 
gently used  by  the  soul,  this  facult}^  is  developed  later 
than  the  other,  in  the  series  of  our  experience;  and 
because  it  is  not  so  necessary  as  that  to  the  conduct  of 
life,  it  is  not  so  constantly,  or  even  so  evidently,  exer- 
cised by  all.  But  it  is  part  of  the  native  and  normal 
endowment  of  every  soul ;  an  item  in  the  inventory  of 
the  equipment  God  has  given  it.  It  comes  out  in  some 
more  visibly  than  in  others,  but  in  all  really,  with  the 
progress  of  life.  And  when  rightly  examined  there  is 
found  something  in  it  not  less  but  more  surprising  and 
mysterious  than  in  that  upon  which  we  have  hitherto 
been  remarking.  In  a  still  superior  exhibition  of  His 
wisdom,  it  sets  God  before  us. 

As  soon  as  the  cliild  is  conscious  of  being,  he  is 
conscious  of  feeling,  of  thinking,  of  affirming.  Indeed 
it  is  through  his  consciousness  of  this  that  he  becomes 
aware  of  his  personal  existence.  That  existence  is  like 
the  atmosphere,  not  apparent  itself,  but  made  apparent 
by  the  effects  and  the  activities  that  are  conditioned 
upon  it;  by  the  perfumes  that  breathe  through  it, 
the  lights  that  shoot  or  stream  atross  it,  and  the  winds 
that  set  it  in  motion  against  us.  Because  the  child 
feels,  he  knows  that  he  is.  In  the  fact  that  he  enjoys, 
that  he  suffers,  tliat  he  thinks,  his  personal  constitution 


80  THEHUMANSOUL, 

and  sensitive  life  unfold  themselves  to  him.  And  ever 
afterward  this  power  of  self-observation  and  scrutiny 
is  more  clearly  exhibited,  as  the  soul  comes  to  larger 
developement  and  culture.  In  the  man  it  is  a  faculty  so 
habitual  and  familiar,  employed  so  easily,  that  he  hardly 
understands  until  it  is  shown  to  him  how  subtle  and 
transcendent  a  power  it  is  ;  what  proofs  are  in  it  of  the 
co-working  kindness  and  power  that  have  formed  him. 

But  think  of  it ! — '  I  find  myself  here,'  each  one  of 
us  may  say  this  evening,  ^  a  being  of  peculiar  spiritual 
frame,  in  a  state  of  developement  which  is  also  peculiar 
and  perfectly  individual.  I  have  certain  affections, 
towards  friends  and  associates;  toward  society,  and 
towards  God ;  which  are  my  own  and  not  another's, 
and  with  which  no  other  may  intermeddle.  There  may 
be  others,  in  other  persons,  analogous  to  these ;  but 
these  are  mine,  dissevered  vitally,  dissevered  altogether, 
from  the  similar  experience  in  every  other,  special  to 
me,  and  as  perfect  in  themselves  as  if  they  had  no- 
where any  equal  or  parallel.  I  have  certain  native 
and  cherished  desires ;  for  happiness  and  its  conditions, 
for  friendship,  literature,  influence,  a  home.  I  have 
a  desire  for  protracted  existence,  and  for  progress  in 
all  that  is  beautiful  and  worthy.  Others  may  discern 
a  resemblance  to  ijhese  in  their  different  hearts,  but 
these  are  my  own,  an  inseparable  part  of  my  spiritual 
developement;    only  recogniz'ed   by  my  consciousness, 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  81 

and  hidden  in  their  experience  from  every  other.  And 
so  I  have  hopes,  premonitions,  foresights ;  I  have  cer- 
tain positive  self-acquired  possessions,  of  knowledge  and 
belief;  I  have  fears  of  disaster,  regrets  for  the  past, 
penitential  accusations,  the  remorseful  consciousness 
of  ill-desert  and  exposure;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
have  a  cheerful  sense  of  forgiveness,  a  lofty  and  firm 
interior  assurance  of  the  complacency  of  pure  beings ; 
an  unspeakable  consciousness  of  the  favor  of  God.  All 
these  are  my  own,  a  part  of  my  life,  revealed  to  my 
personal  intuition  alone,  and  in  their  nature  unshared 
by  any  others,  however  others  may  sympathize  with 
them.  These  enjoyments  and  these  sorrows,  these 
dreads  and  these  desires,  these  memories,  these  aspira- 
tions, these  loves  and  these  aversion^,  these  convictions 
and  beliefs,  these  fancies  that  touch  the  whole  earth 
with  their  brightness,  these  '  thoughts  that  wander 
through  eternity ;'  all  have  their  origin,  their  realm 
and  their  reign,  within  my  soul.  They  make  it 
populous  with  their  animated  presence.  They  are 
part  of  myself;  of  my  experience,  and  my  activity ; 
and  it  were  to  change  my  very  identity  to  separate 
them  from  me.  More  than  the  flush  inhering  in  the 
ruby,  or  the  vari-colored  beauty  that  almost  pulsates  in 
the  opal,  they  characterize  my  soul.' 

All  these  are  invisible,  you  observe.     All  these  are 
within  us.     Yet  neither  their  impalpableness,  nor  their 


82  THE     HUMAN    SOUL, 

nearness  to  ourselves,  can  hide  them  from  our  simul- 
taneous observation ;  but  even  while  they  are  arising, 
or  while  they  are  fleeting  instantaneously  away,  they 
pass  before  our  introspective  glance  as  evidently  as  the 
pageant  that  marches  through  the  street  before  the 
glance  of  the  eye.  The  same  soul  which  feels  them, 
observes  them  also.  It  can  take  them  up  and  study 
them,  at  its  own  free  pleasure.  According  to  the 
consciousness  of  each  of  us,  it  hath  this  singular  bi-fold 
capacity,  by  which  it  can  erect  itself  above  the  level 
of  itself,  can  stand  outside  of  its  own  activity,  and 
survey  while  it  experiences  the  emotion  and  the 
thought.  The  physical  eye,  which  is  the  instrument 
of  the  soul,  sees  only  what  is  exterior  to  itself.  If  it 
would  search  its  own  structure,  it  must  seek  to  learn 
that  though  examining  the  equal  organ  in  another.  The 
interior  eye,  which  is  the  soul,  introverting  its  gaze, 
and  reduplicating  its  vision,  can  examine  itself;  and 
whUe  it  is  in  the  very  act  of  observing  what  passes 
before  it,  can  see  how  it  observes,  and  how  each  ray  of 
perception  and  thought  impresses  its  sensitive  spiritual 
structure.  The  beating  muscle  of  the  heart  is  disturbed 
if  we  begin  to  reckon  its  pulsations.  But  the  soul, 
which  throbs  and  palpitates  with  desire,  or  thrills  with 
the  motions  of  unutterable  love,  will  measure  its  own 
motions  even  while  they  are  in  progress,  and  will 
count  while  it  distributes   the  currents   of  its   feeling. 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  83 

The  eye  cannot  see  the  air  around  it.  The  soul  can 
see  the  form,  the  measure,  the  proportion,  of  every 
airiest  fancy  or  feeling,  whose  presence  within  it  no 
sense  discovers,  whose  luminous  outline  drops  no 
shadow,  whose  ^printless  foot'  troubles  no  echo.  There 
is  here,  then,  not  only  a  singular  alertness  and  quick- 
ness of  faculty,  but  a  singular  duality  of  faculty  and 
function.  Holding  its  own  present  thought  before  its 
vision,  the  soul  can  consider  and  investigate  that,  as 
if  it  were  a  permanent,  palpable  entity,  existing  apart 
from  it.  Turning  back  upon  itself,  in  the  exercise  of 
its  powers,  it  can  scrutinize  those  powers  through  their 
own  operation;  can  search  them  to  their  bases,  and 
make  them  tell  their  mutual  relations.  Projecting 
before  it  its  very  feeling,  which  at  that  instant  intensely 
lives  and  dominates  in  it,  it  can  separately  consider  it, 
and  feel  again  in  view  of  its  existence. 

This  is  a  faculty,  therefore,  this  one  of  Reflection, 
so  fine  and  fleet,  so  full  of  spiritual  insight  and  mastery, 
that  we  could  not  imagine  it  if  we  did  not  experience 
it.  As  I  said,  we  are  in  practice  so  habituated  to  it  that 
we  hardly  appreciate  it.  Its  occult  mystery  fails  to 
impress  us,  until  another  holds  it  before  us.  But  the 
moment  we  think  of  it,  we  see  that  such  a  power  of 
discerning  the  impalpable,  of  observing  what  passes  or 
momently  rests  in  the  soul  itself,  this  power  of  intro- 
spection and  self-observation,  has  a  wonderful  height 


84  THEHUMANSOUL, 

and  dignity  upon  it.  It  illustrates  the  unsearchable 
wisdom  and  power  that  combine  to  create  the  human 
soul. 

The  crystal,  the  stone,  exhibit  certain  laws  to  us; 
but  they  give  no  evidence  of  an  individual  existence. 
The  tree  shows  life ;  and  the  animal  another,  higher  and 
more  powerful.  The  animal  has  powers  of  observation 
and  motion,  which  evidently  separate  him  from  all 
beneath  him ;  and  in  certain  higher  classes  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  as  the  bee  or  the  beaver,  the  bird  or 
the  dog,  we  discern  an  instinctive  perception  of  relations, 
which  enables  them  to  arrange  their  action  methodically, 
according  to  the  laws  established  around  them.  But 
in  none  of  these  do  we  find  this  power  of  Reflection ; 
this  capacity  for  an  accurate  and  intuitive  self-analysis ; 
this  ability  to  observe  and  to  measure  the  states  which 
are  purely  internal,  having  gained  no  expression  in 
word  or  act.  This  pertains  to  man  only.  Side  by 
side  it  stands  with  that  other  faculty  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  the  faculty  of  Perception,  which  observes 
outward  nature.  As  this  has  for  its  objects  intellectual 
processes  or  emotive  states,  and  not  physical  forces 
and  material  forms,  it  seems  even  higher  and  more 
recondite  than  that.  It  is  a  special  and  lofty  preroga- 
tive of  our  spiritual  being ;  allying  that  being,  most 
directly  and  evidently,  with  the  infinite  Intelligence 
which  comprehends  aU  created  spirits  in  the  scrutiny 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  85 

of  its  thought,  and  which  ever  contemplates  with 
undazzled  clearness,  and  ever  enjoys  with  unbounded 
pleasure,  its  own  eternal  and  unequalled  constitution. 

Not  outward,  only,  but  inward  also,  we  are  privileged 
to  look.  The  river  and  the  sea,  the  mountain  and  the 
metal,  the  tribes  of  plants,  the  races  of  animals,  the 
face  of  man,  all  these  are  open  to  our  observation ;  and 
even  the  soul,  which  no  finger  can  touch,  no  balances 
weigh,  and  no  microscope  discern,  must  render  up  the 
feelings  and  the  thoughts  that  lie  within  it,  to  our 
intent  and  imperial  spirit.  The  conditions  of  true 
Knowledge  are  so  far  complete;  for  all  the  necessary 
materials  for  that  are  put  within  our  reach  by  Him  who 
hath  ordained  us. 

III.  But  now  there  is  another  faculty  inseparably 
associated  with  these  of  Perception  and  Reflection,  in 
the  constitution  of  the  soul,  which  further  prepares  it 
for  the  attainment  of  Knowledge,  and  which  equally 
illustrates  the  character  and  the  power  of  Him  who 
forms  it.  It  is  what  we  ordinanly  call  the  Judgment  ; 
the  logical  and  analytic  faculty,  that  is ;  the  power  of 
analysing  and  mentally  reconstructing  ivhat  is  observed^  so 
that  each  particular  form  or  fact  shall  be  discriminated 
from  others,  shall  be  assigned  to  its  true  place  in  the 
system  which  it  subserves,  and  be  made  to  render  up 
the  special  meanings  that  are  in  it. 

With  the  operation  of  this  faculty  every  one  is  fami- 


86  THE     HUMAN     SOUL 


liar.  Of  its  possession  the  soul  in  each  of  us^  and 
in  each  of  our  compeers,  is  intuitively  certain.  It  is 
part  of  our  endowment ;  developed  and  instructed,  but 
not  produced,  by  cultivation.  Yet  no  one  can  go  back 
to  its  origin  or  its  seat,  and  no  one  can  overstate  its 
importance  or  its  dignity. 

The  child,  for  example,  among  its  first  acts,  distin- 
guishes with  certainty  the  mother  from  the  father; 
distinguishes  each  from  the  nurse,  from  a  stranger, 
from  the  other  children  of  the  household.  It  early 
begins  to  distinguish  the  room  to  which  it  is  accustomed 
from  the  carriage,  from  the  open  air,  and  then  from 
other  rooms  that  are  comparatively  strange  to  it. 
Gradually  the  objects  within  the  room  are  separated 
from  each  other,  are  decided  to  be  diiFerent,  and  are 
assigned  to  their  several  places  and  uses,  by  its  enlarg- 
ing power  of  thought.  The  chair  by  the  crib-side  is 
seen  to  stand  in  contrast  with  the  table  beyond  it ;  the 
picture  on  the  wall  with  the  plaything  on  the  floor, 
with  the  mirror  or  the  mantel.  The  voices  and  forms 
of  its  companions  are  separated ;  the  colors  of  dress ; 
the  periods  of  the  day ;  books,  pictures,  flowers,  foods, 
the  streets  of  the  city,  and  the  buildings  that  line  them ; 
or  roads,  bridges,  fields,  birds,  the  lake  or  brook,  the 
distant  hills,  if  its  developement  begin  amid  country 
scenes.  At  last  this  faculty  of  division  and  analysis — 
which  in  some  respects  is  higher  and  more  purely  intel- 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  87 

lectual  than  either  which  I  have  named,  but  which  is 
just  as  native  and  universal  as  they,  and  which  comes 
to  carry  them  to  their  useMness  and  fruition — ^is 
brought  to  full  and  continual  exhibition,  as  childhood 
melts  by  degrees  into  youth,  and  youth  is  merged  in  a 
cultivated,  practised  and  persistent  manhood. 

It  ranges  then  over  a  vastly  expanded  domain  of 
facts.  It  acts  with  a  vigor,  a  celerity  and  a  confidence, 
which,  as  matched  against  the  timid  and  hesitating 
though  real  action  of  the  child,  in  similar  directions, 
surpasses  that,  as  the  muscle  of  manhood  surpasses 
while  it  involves  the  muscle  of  the  child.  Then 
knowledges  spring  from  it,  and  arts  are  bom  of  it.  All 
Science  gains  developement  through  the  exercise  of  this 
power.  Philosophies  take  their  rise  in  it.  And  Inven- 
tions, which  do  but  accept  and  apply  the  principles 
of  science,  or  carry  into  apphcation  the  truths  of 
philosophy,  trace  their  parentage  to  it.  The  botanist, 
for  example,  selects  his  special  department  in  the 
creation,  dividing  it  out  from  the  neighboring  domain 
of  the  chemist,  the  mineralogist,  or  the  student  of 
geology;  and  amid  this  he  finds  an  ample  field  for  his 
research.  He  discriminates  within  it  individuals,  fami- 
lies, and  classes  from  each  other.  The  most  obvious 
differences,  which  the  child's  eye  detects,  the  differences 
of  color,  of  height,  or  of  evident  form,  are  not  those 
which    detain    him.      He     penetrates    through    these 


88 

superficial  phenomena,  to  the  structural  laws  wh^cli 
underlie  and  outlast  them ;  and  from  these  less  palpable, 
but  more  vital  peculiarities,  he  builds  up  his  system, 
arranging  into  orderly  companies  and  platoons  the 
seemingly  heterogeneous  productions  of  the  spring. 
Each  plant  finds  its  fellow,  before  his  quickened  faculty, 
through  a  sympathy  more  recondite  sometimes  than 
that  which  allies  two  persons  together  whom  all  would 
pronounce  at  first  sight  dissimilar.  Each  family  finds 
its  kindred,  or  its  including  group ;  each  group  or  class 
its  legitimate  place,  amid  the  innumerable  out-ranging 
varieties  of  vegetable  life.  And  it  is  not  till  he  has 
distinguished  and  classified  them  all,  has  located 
each,  and  has  organized  their  series — with  the  careful 
application  of  principles  of  division  which  commend 
themselves  to  his  disciplined  and  accurate  judgment — 
that  the  botanist  is  satisfied.  He  must  reproduce, 
through  his  analysis,  the  thought  and  plan  of  the 
Creator  himself,  as  He  arranged  these  successive  par- 
terres and  plantations  of  beauty,  before  this  faculty  in 
him  is  satisfied.  Until  he  has  done  this,  it  will  not  let 
him  rest;  but  perpetually  it  haunts  him  with  the 
suggestion  of  facts  which  he  has  not  investigated,  or  of 
facts  which  his  principles  of  division  and  arrangement 
have  proved  insufiicient  to  interpret  and  to  reconcile. 

The  same  force  is  shown,  in  a  perfectly  harmonious 
and  parallel  exhibition,  in  the  chemist,  the  geologist, 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  89 

the  ornithologist,  the  astronomer ;  in  him  who  considers 
the  configuration,  the  structure,  and  the  relations  and 
uses,  of  shells  or  bones,  of  earths  or  metals ;  in  every 
dUigent  and  successful  student  of  any  part  of  the 
Creation.  The  same  force  is  shown,  as  really  if  not  as 
obviously,  in  the  jurist  and  the  publicist;  and  in  him 
who  reads  history,  not  as  a  mere  aggregation  of  particu- 
lars, but  as  the  expression  of  great  and  permanent 
spiritual  forces,  the  record  or  the  index  of  one 
advancing  plan  of  Providence.  Everjrwhere,  by  the 
exercise  of  this  faculty,  true  knowledge  is  gathered; 
from  that'  exercise,  indeed,  as  conjoined  with  that 
of  the  faculty  of  observation,  this  knowledge  springs, 
as  the  tree  from  its  seed  ; — the  observer  of  Woolsthorpe 
arising  from  the  fall  of  the  apple  in  his  garden  to  the 
induction  of  that  invisible  law  which  binds  as  well  Orion 
and  the  Pleiades,  which  briugs  forth  Mazzaroth  in  his 
season,  and  guides  Arcturus  with  his  sons;  Kepler, 
before  Newton,  unfolding  from  the  data  afforded  by  the 
observations  of  the  accomplished  Tycho  Brahe  those 
laws  of  the  relations  and  motions  of  the  planetary  and 
stellar  systems  which  have  never  been  superseded, 
which  have  been  the  rule  and  the  guide  indeed  of 
subsequent  observations,  and  have  prophetically  pointed 
out  its  course  of  triumph  to  the  studious  telescope ; 
Gibbon,  rearing  the  arch  of  his  great  history  between 
ancient  Rome  and  modern  Europe;  and  Leibnitz,  com- 


90  THEHUMANSOUL, 

posing  the  separate  treatises  which  seem  to  have  been 
intended  by  him  as  the  several  parts  of  a  universal 
science  of  matter  and  of  mind ; — all^  in  the  use  of  the 
one  innate  faculty,  and  in  obedience  to  the  commands 
which  it  laid  upon  them ;  the  whole  sisterhood  of 
sciences  arising  into  being  before  the  wave  of  its  wand, 
and  all  things  animate,  and  all  things  inanimate,  being 
made  by  it  to  troop  around  the  soul  as  the  animals 
around  Adam  when  he  gave  them  their  names;  the 
very  stars  in  their  courses  being  marshalled  in  their 
place  by  it: 

Philosophies,  also,  as  I  have  said,  become  possible 
to  us,  through  the  presence  of  this  faculty,  and  its  ex- 
ercise by  us ;  as  combined,  of  course,  with  that  faculty 
of  Reflection  which  has  been  previously  discussed. 
Through  it  we  learn  not  only  to  analyse,  but  also  to 
estimate,  our  own  mental  states ;  to  separate  those 
which  are  unlike  or  distinguishable;  to  set  in  com- 
parison those  which  are  similar;  to  combine  those 
which  are  inter-related.  And  so  we  arrive  at  the 
dignity  of  self-knowledge.  Afterwards,  then,  from  this 
knowledge  of  ourselves,  we  can  reason  out  confidently 
to  a  knowledge  of  others,  who  are  peers  of  ourselves, 
and  who  stand  on  the  same  gradation  of  existence.  He 
who  knows  his  own  thoughts,  by  the  exercise  of  the 
judgment,  can  read  the  thoughts  of  another  as  well. 
He  who  has  sounded  his  own  springs  of  affection,  can 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  91 

measure,  or  at  least  can  apprehend  and  consider,  the 
similar  ones  in  others.  And  he  who  knows  how 
unlimited  in  their  range  are  the  infinite  desires  and 
aspirations  of  his  soul,  and  who  is  able  to  evolve  and 
to  set  in  their  order  the  laws  of  that  spirit  which 
is  broader  in  the  scope  of  its  thought  and  its  hope  than 
the  creation  in  its  range,  can  go  around  the  souls  of 
others,  and  count  their  palaces,  and  number  their  tow- 
ers, and  examine  all  their  costly  and  decorated  frame. 

That  a  higher  power  still  than  these  two  uniting 
ones  of  the  Reflective  faculty  and  the  Judgment,  is 
needful  to  the  production  of  a  perfect  Philosophy, 
must  undoubtedly  be  admitted.  But  yet  these  two 
are  indispensable  to  that,  as  well  as  its  most  effective 
auxiliaries.  And  the  Judgment,  as  using  the  materials 
furnished  by  a  careful  introspection,  can  construct  a 
most  valuable  science  of  the  mind. 

And  yet  this  faculty,  which  thus  surpasses  and  thus 
completes  the  primary  ones  beneath  it,  is  nothing  rare, 
unwonted,  extraordinary,  possessed  by  few,  and  the 
creature  in  them  of  special  felicities  of  structure  or  of 
training.  It  is  part  of  the  native  endowment  of  each 
soul.  That  has  by  creation,  by  birthright,  this  faculty 
not  only  of  perceiving  the  immediate  phenomena,  but 
of  inferring  the  laws  which  pervade  and  determine 
them;  of  advancing  outward,  from  the  perceptions  it 
first  makes,  till  it  groups  and  combines  what  seemed 


92  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

inharmonious,  and  embraces*  in  the  unity  of  a  compre- 
hending law  what  looked  most  diverse.  This  is  shown 
in  commerce,  and  in  legal  procedures,  as  well  as  in  the 
pursuit  of  astronomy,  botany,  ethics,  or  psychology. 
It  is  constantly  revealed  in  the  most  familiar  voluntary 
processes.  It  centrally  lives  in  every  soul,  and  helps 
to  make  that  what  it  is.  Conceive,  then,  crystals, 
metals  or  plants,  endowed  with  this  subtle  intellectual 
faculty  of  analysis  and  arrangement  by  some  action 
of  yours,  reflect  what  omnipotence  that  would  show 
in  your  will,  what  wisdom  in  your  mind,  and  what 
kindness  in  your  heart,  and  what  immeasurable  import- 
ance it  would  confer  upon  them — and  you  see  what 
God  hath  done  for  you,  in  so  organizing  the  Soul! 

Not  only  are  sciences  born  of  this  faculty.  In- 
ventions equally,  as  I  said,  spring  from  it;  and  they 
as  clearly  illustrate  its  nature,  and  demonstrate  its 
value.  This  is  true  of  both  physical  and  spiritual 
inventions.  Of  the  former,  the  steam-engine  is  a 
sufficient  example,  as  it  is  the  most  powerful  and 
conspicuous  product  of  modern  inventive  and  mechanical 
skill.  The  fact  that  the  cover  of  the  tea-kettle  rises, 
before  the  expansive  power  of  steam,  while  it  sinks 
again,  the  instant  that  steam  has  escaped,  under  the 
silent  oppressions  of  the  air — herein  is  the  element,  as 
all  of  us  know,  of  that  gigantic  and  unconquerable 
implement  which  now  heaves  up  and  down,  with  ever- 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  93 

repeated  and  unwearied  oscillation  its  iron  anas, 
cleaving  with  ease  the  stormiest  seas,  drawing  travel- 
ers in  its  train  that  might  people  a  village,  as  it  sweeps 
over  the  earth,  and  driving  the  thousand  flying  shuttles 
that  clothe  society  with  their  beautiful  fabrics ;  carrying 
Civihzation,  Commerce,  and  Protestantism  to  the  mas- 
tery, of  the  world.  The  cotton-gin,  the  power-loom, 
the  printing-press,  the  mariner's  compass,  microscopes, 
telescopes,  the  watch,  fire-arms,  balloons,  railways, 
borers  that  eat  "with  ceaseless  tooth  through  mountain 
rock,  reapers  with  flying  arms  and  bladed  hands 
sweeping  the  wheat-field ;  in  a  word,  the  whole  series 
and  array  of  inventions,  which  time  has  gathered,  which 
use  has  matured,  and  which  constitute  now  the  copious 
and  splendid  apparatus  of  society,  have  sprung  from  the 
same  intellectual  faculty.  A  fact  being  perceived,  the 
force  underneath  it  has  been  explored  and  investigated 
by  the  inquisitive  soul.  The  judgment  has  then 
arrranged,  and  the  hands,  its  obedient  servitors,  have 
compacted,  these  invisible  forces  in  new  combinations. 
And  so  have  been  produced  these  manifold  implements, 
deriving  their  efficiency  from  the  powers  inexhaustible 
which  fill  the  creation,  applying  those  powers  to  the 
furtherance  of  man's  interests,  and  lining  the  armory 
of  our  peaceful  civilization  with  trophies  more  precious 
than  those  of  all  conquerors.  No  invention  has  been 
dropped  like  an  aerolite  upon  the  earth;  no  invention 


94         ,  THEHtJMANSOUL, 

has  been  born  like  a  diamond  in  the  darkness,  to  be 
picked  up  as  easily  by  the  idle  and  the  careless,  as  by 
the  industrious,  the  solicitous,  and  the  thoughtful.  But 
in  each  one  the  soul  has  been  expressed,  and  in  each 
one  the  consenting  and  cooperating  faculties  of  which 
I  have  spoken  have  had  their  demonstration;  the 
power  to  perceive  facts — ^itself  a  high  and  mysterious 
prerogative — ^being  crowned  and  completed  by  the 
power  to  explain  them,  and  to  find  the  invisible  forces 
which  are  beneath.  Most  evidently  is  the  Soul,  which 
hath  these  powers,  allied  with  Him  who  planned  and 
formed,  who  now  upholds,  the  frame  of  things ! 

And  the  same  is  as  true  of  the  other  inventions,  of 
a  spiritual  order,  to  which  these  are  subordinate;  of 
the  invention  of  the  state,  as  the  fortress  of  society; 
and  of  government  as  its  organ,  with  the  adaptation 
of  its  methods  and  forms  of  administration  to  the  wants 
of  nations ;  of  the  invention  of  literature,  in  its  differ- 
ent departments,  as  adapted  to  instruct,  to  strengthen, 
and  to  enrich  the  thought  of  mankind;  the  invention 
of  religions,  and  forms  of  worship,  where  these  are  not 
appointed  by  an  authoritative  Revelation.  All  arise 
from  this  faculty,  first,  of  knowing  ourselves,  through 
the  act  of  reflection,  and  then  of  reasoning  outward 
from  ourselves  to  other  beings,  and  arranging  institu- 
tions, legislations,  letters,  by  their  perceived  wants. 
Theologies    themselves   are   thus    suggested ;    and   we 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  95 

arise  from  the  spirit  which  God  has  formed,  in  all  its 
original  constitutional  endowment  bearing  his  image, 
to  Him  who  on  high  surveys  seraphim  in  their  orders, 
combining  an  unbounded  intelligence  and  sensibihty 
with  an  absolute  will,  and  reigning  in  the  constant 
supremacy  of  goodness.  We  are  thus  related  directly, 
by  our  nature,  to  the  very  highest  knowledge.  We  are 
enabled  to  surpass  the  domains  of  science ;  to  superadd 
spiritual  to  material  inventions ;  and  to  reason  upward 
from  ourselves,  through  all  ascending  ranks  of  being, 
to  Him  who  is  throned  above  them  all;  the  reflection 
of  whose  eternal  mind  is  mirrored  upon  ours,  but  to 
whose  ours  is  the  sun-ray  to  the  orb;  is  the  drop  of 
dew,  in  its  tiny  sphericity,  to  the  infinite  azure  swim- 
ming ever  overhead !  K  any  thing  hinders  man  from 
the  attainment  of  such  knowledge,  it  is  something  out- 
side of  his  mental  endowment. 

ly.  But  further,  we  must  add  to  these  faculties  of 
the  soul  which  prepare  it  to  gain  knowledge,  the 
eminent  faculty  of  Reason  am)  Imaginatiox  ;  the  power, 
that  is,  which  the  mind  possesses,  of  conceiving  and  of 
contemplating  what  is  purely  Ideal ;  what  never  has  had 
exhibition  in  phenomena,  or  direct  representation  in  the 
facts  of  experience.  This  is  as  necessary  as  either  of 
the  others  to  the  attainment  of  true  knowledge. 
Indeed,  it  is  primary;  necessary  to  give  value,  coher- 


96  THEHUMANSOUL, 

ence   and   usefulness   to  either  of  them,  and  it  is  as 
universally  possessed  by  the  soul. 

It  takes  notice  of  the  axioms,  the  final  and  permanent 
laws  of  being,  according  to  which  all  phenomena  arise, 
upon  which  they  are  conditioned,  and  by  which  they 
are  always  to  be  measured  and  interpreted.  It  affirms 
these  principles,  and  assures  us  of  their  validity;  not 
so  much  believing  them  because  they  are  proved,  as 
seeing  them  because  they  are ;  bearing  an  interior 
witness  to  them,  which  feels  no  hesitancy,  and  allows 
^  no  contradiction.  That  the  whole  is  greater  than  a 
'w'  part ;  that  two  things,  each  of  which  is  equal  to  a  third, 
are  equal  to  each  other;  that  the  finite  is  necessarily 
conditioned  upon  the  Infinite;  that  the  sense  of 
obligation  implies  a  Law  as  its  measure,  and  a  Being  as 
its  executive ; — ^these  are  such  principles  as  this  faculty 
affirms.  It  affirms  them  with  a  final,  self-supporting 
authority,  from  which  there  can  be  no  appeal;  and 
because  it  affirms  them,  and  thus  establishes  a  perma- 
nent platform  upon  which  investigation  and  analysis 
may  proceed,  the  further  operations  of  the  judgment 
become  legitimate.  They  would  have  no  basis,  they 
would  be  governed  by  no  rule,  they  would  cease  to  be 
trustworthy,  except  for  this  architectonic  faculty. 

But  not  to  the  affirmation  of  such  'axioms,'  as  we 
call  them,  such  self-evidencing  principles,  is  this  faculty 
confined.      It    concerns    itself   also    with    all  highest 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  97 

themes,  and  brings  us  report  respecting  tham;  with 
the  themes  that  transcend,  as  well  as  with  those  that 
precede  and  underlie,  the  analyses  of  the  judgment. 
And  everywhere  its  characteristic  is  that  it  speaks 
with  authority,  and  brings  its  sufficient  and  undeniable 
evidence  in  its  very  affirmation.  It  takes  this  devel- 
opement  in  the  truly  spiritual  and  transcendental 
philosopher;  in  the  masters  of  art,  of  eloquence,  or  of 
song.  It  is  in  aU  a  religious  faculty,  by  way  of 
eminence ;  because  approaching  most  nearly  the  mind 
of  the  Creator.  There  is  a  beauty,  above  the  beauty 
wliich  is  shown  amid  nature ;  ^  a  light  that  never  was, 
on  sea  or  land ;'  a  touching  and  transcendent  music, 
before  whose  strains,  unworldly  and  Divine,  the  harps 
above  might  pause  to  listen.  To  these  the  soul  of  the 
true  and  high  artist  instinctively  reaches  upward.  It 
is  they  that  select  and  ordain  him  their  minister.  And 
as  he  catches  the  vision  or  the  voice  of  them,  through 
his  intent  yet  calm  Imagination — ^which  is  only  the 
Reason  looking  upward  for  its  objects,  and  then 
informing  the  humbler  powers — ^he  pours  them  out,  on 
poetry  or  music  that  are  uttered  for  the  ages;  on 
paintings  that  glow  with  a  flame  of  thought,  celestial 
and  unconsuming ;  on  cathedrals  whose  solid  and  deco- 
rated frame  springs  upward  like  a  psalm,  and  loses 
itself  like  praise  upon  the  air.     The  glory  of  High  Art 

is   thus   attained.      It   does,  not  come   from  a  careful 

7 


98  THE     HUMAN     SOUL. 

inspection  of  models  and  forms,  and  the  exquisite 
rendering  of  the  conceptions  thus  gained,  in  tints  and 
tones.  It  is  born  of  the  visions  that  descend  from 
above  on  the  lofty  Intelligence  aspiring  to  reach  them, 
and  lighted  when  they  touch  it  like  Memnon  by  the 
sunbeam.  It  comes  from  that  which  to  Sense  is 
invisible,  but  to  Reason  is  evident,  expressed  approx- 
imately in  words  and  lines.  And  therefore  we  are 
certain  that  in  all  High  Art  the  painter,  the  builder,  or 
the  poet,  has  not  realized  his  ideal ;  while  yet  in  some 
respects  he  has  surpassed  his  intent,  and  has  '  builded 
better  than  he  knew.'  The  thought  has  possessed  him, 
not  he  the  thought ;  and  while  it  has  inspired  and 
elevated  his  work,  it  has  been  too  high  for  that  fully 
to  utter  it. 

Philosophy,  in  its  highest  forms,  requires  this  faculty, 
as  I  intimated  before,  and  becomes  possible  to  us  only 
through  its  possession.  As  a  mere  ^science  of  mind,' 
as  it  is  sometimes  called — a  superficial  arrangement, 
that  is,  by  the  analytic  power,  of  the  mental  phenomena 
which  reflection  reveals  to  us — ^it  has  comparatively 
little  value.  Into  it  there  must  come  higher  elements 
of  truth,  to  ennoble  and  complete  it.  The  perpetual 
and  universal  validity  of  Truth ;  the  authority  of  Right, 
and  its  immutable  character ;  the  existence  of  a  system 
of  moral  order  in  the  universe,  not  disclosed  to  any 
eye,  not  breaking  in  its  movement  against  any  sense, 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  99 

but  real,  imperative,  and  discerned  by  the  soul ;  these, 
and  the  personal  being  of  God,  as  the  sum  of  all  good, 
requiring  and  imparting  that  good  among  his  creatures ; 
these  are  the  elements  which  Philosophy  must  include, 
to  make  it  truly  noble  and  enduring.  As  really  as 
Theology — which  runs  parallel  with  Philosophy,  through 
a  part  of  its  course,  though  it  stretches  on,  with  a 
grander  current,  beyond  the  term  of  the  develop ement 
of  this — ^it  implies  the  use  of  that  power  in  the  soul  by 
which  we  apprehend  the  purely  Ideal,  and  affirm  an  ex- 
istence not  demonstrated  from  without,  nor  discovered 
within;  that  inward  eye  of  authoritative  Reason,  to 
which  the  palpable  compact  of  elements  around  us, 
which  we  call  earth,  is  not  more  real,  is  hardly  more 
evident,  than  the  system  above,  which  no  eye  hath  seen. 
When  this  grand  power  is  freely  and  justly  used, 
Philosophy  takes  its  purest  form.  With  accuracy,  it 
unites  dignity;  with  clearness  of  insight,  it  combines 
elevation  and  scope  of  vision.  It  interprets  the  facts 
of  human  nature,  and  translates  into  forms  which  all 
may  apprehend,  high  spiritual  verities.  It  is  thence- 
forth a  vision  and  a  power  in  civilization  :  "  a  possession 
forever,"  to  the  Race  which  it  illuminates.  And  to  the 
eloquence  which  utters  it,  like  that  of  Plato  or  of  Paul, 
the  centuries  listen.  There  is  an  eloquence,  with  the 
judgment  alone  beneath  it,  like  the  ostrich  in  its 
motion ;  running  swiftly  over  the  earth,  never  traversing 


100 

the  skies;  and  there  is  an  eloquence,  informed  by 
the  Reason,  and  expressing  the  substance  of  great  phi- 
losophies, that  is  to  the  other  like  the  eagle  in  its 
flight;  soaring  upward  from  the  sensuous,  inhabiting 
higher  regions,  and  descending  from  above  on  each 
eminent  theme.  And  this  is  the  eloquence  which  lives 
and  reigns,  which  inspires  and  exalts ;  because  coming 
from  a  mind  accustomed  attentively  to  consider  the 
Invisible,  to  contemplate  truths  which  in  their  nature 
are  unseen,  but  which  in  their  being  and  history  are 
primeval,  and  in  their  value  immortal.  Not  outward, 
only,  or  inward,  but  upward  also,  the  Soul  must  look, 
to  gain  the  highest  and  most  valuable  knowledge. 
And  the  power  to  do  this  points  instantly  to  God, 
as  its  author  and  architect,  as  the  spire  of  the  temple 
points  upward  to  the  skies.  The  perceptive,  the  re- 
flective, the  inductive  powers,  give  place  to  the 
Reason,  in  the  scale  of  real  excellence.  The  develope- 
ment  of  this  makes  the  Seer  among  men.  The  in- 
struction of  this,  and  its  elevation  by  God,  prepares 
one  to  be  His  veritable  Prophet. 

And  yet  there  is  nothing  rare  in  this  faculty.  It 
is  not  unprecedented,  naturally  extraordinary,  in  the 
human  constitution.  Instead,  it  is  quite  as  universally 
found,  it  is  quite  as  early  and  prominently  shown,  as 
any  other  faculty  within  the  compass  of  the  soul.  Its 
light  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world; 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  101 

and  in  the  youngest,  or  in  the  rudest,  it  has  sometimes 
the  most  vivid  exhibition.  Revelation  appeals  to  it, 
directly  and  especially;  and  Revelation  is  designed 
to  be  permanent  and  imiversal  in  the  range  of  its 
address.  In  childhood,  we  meet  this  faculty  always. 
The  child  feels  a  certainty  of  the  fixedness  of  Truth, 
of  the  instant  and  abiding  authority  of  Duty.  He 
has  a  sense  of  the  Invisible  around  him.  God  is  real 
to  him ;  the  Angel  near ;  Right  imperative ;  Eternity 
waiting.  He  walks  amid  a  glory,  streaming  down 
from  the  unseen;  a  glory  which  he  cannot  altogether 
comprehend,  or  articulately  utter,  but  which  redeems 
each  scene  from  dulness,  making  the  night-faU  more 
portentous,  the  day-break  more  inspiring  in  its  beauty. 
And  so  is  exhibited  at  the  start  of  our  being — most 
evident,  then,  and  only  too  apt  to  be  sacrificed  after- 
ward, or  materially  obscured,  in  the  progress  of  our 
subsequent  analytic  enlightenment — this  power  of  the 
soul.  Genius  itself  is  more  the  carrying  on  of  this 
power,  amid  all  mental  growth,  into  all  acquisition, 
than  the  superadding  of  any  other  to  it.  The  man 
who  cherishes  it,  finds  it  afterward  combining  in 
beautiful  conjunction  with  his  other  mental  forces, 
and  giving  them  all  a  nobler  grace.  It  makes  him  lord 
not  of  the  Seen  only,  but  of  the  Unseen  as  weU.  He 
walks  amid  the  Ideal,  as  well  as  on  the  earth  which 
is  sensible  and  near.     He  rises   from  the  mount  that 


102  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

may  be  touched  and  that  burns,  and  the  laws  that 
are  audible,  to  the  law  which  is  spiritual,  and  the 
City  on  high,  with  its  sublimer  convocations.  He 
apprehends,  by  intuition,  the  certainties  of  Truth.  In 
no  wildness  of  fantasy,  in  no  extasy  of  trance,  but 
in  the  legitimate  use  of  a  power  as  native  to  his  soul 
as  any  other,  he  contemplates  moral  truths  more  august 
than  the  stars ;  he  finds  the  Possible  as  near  him  as 
the  Actual ;  he  has  the  vision  of  a  spiritual  Governor. 
The  Reason,  we  call  this,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Judgment,  in  investigating  truth.  The  Imagination, 
we  call  it,  when  it  gives  its  visions  to  other  powers, 
to  be  by  them  interpreted  into  formsr  Emancipating 
the  soul  from  subjection  to  space,  to  time,  to  the  Actual, 
it  makes  it  the  student,  and  then  the  apostle,  of  uni- 
versal Truth. 

V.  Only  one  more  faculty  remains  to  be  noticed, 
to  carry  to  completeness  our  survey  of  the  Soul,  as 
ordained  by  its  Creator  to  be  the  subject  of  Knowl- 
edge. And  this  is  The  Memory;  the  power,  that  is, 
which  is  possessed  by  the  mind,  of  retaining  and  recol- 
lecting the  impressions  that  have  been  made  on  it ;  of  re- 
calling the  thoughts  it  once  has  had,  the  convictions 
it  has  formed,  and  the  sentiments  it  has  cherished ; 
its  power  of  presenting  these,  at  a  subsequent  time, 
in   almost  their   original   clearness  and   scope. 

That  this   power  is   possessed   by   every   mind,   to 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  103 

some  extent,  is  matter  of  familiar  and  universal 
experience.  That  it  may  be  cultivated,  to  almost 
any  degree,  by  those  who  intelligently  seek  to  cher- 
ish it,  is  also  evident  from  the  experience  of  men. 
That  it  equips  the  mind,  finally,  for  the  attainment 
of  knowledge,  and  puts  the  key-stone  in  the  arch 
of  its  acquisitions,  is  apparent  at  a  glance.  Through 
its  possession  of  this  the  soul  becomes  capable,  not 
only,  as  I  have  said,  of  looking  outward  on  the  frame 
of  the  physical  creation,  and  gathering  the  various 
impressions  of  that;  not  only  of  looking  inward,  on 
its  interior  state  and  action,  discerning  its  own  move- 
ments, and  reading  the  marvels  of  its  personal  struc- 
ture ;  not  only  of  reasoning  forth  from  these  forces 
and  phenomena  to  the  laws  which  infold  them,  and 
the  sciences,  inventions,  philosophies,  that  spring  from 
them  ;  not  only  of  looking  upward,  to  the  Truths 
unseen,  but  supreme  and  primordial,  which  are  the 
"master  light  of  all  our  seeing;"  but  also  of  look- 
ing hackivard,  on  all  that  it  has  acquired  in  the  Past, 
of  making  that  its  present  possession,  and  giving  to  that 
its  own  immortality. 

It  is  a  kind  of  ubiquity,  an  independence  of  space; 
a  kind  of  omniscience,  an  independence  of  time ;  which 
thus  is  given  to  the  human  soul.  In  foreign  lands,  it 
recalls  the  events  and  the  scenes  of  its  birth-place,  as 
if  they  stood  before   the  eye.     In  the  last   years  of 


104  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

life,  it  goes  back  to  its  youth;  and  again  the  now 
desolate  rooms  are  populous,  again  the  heart  greets 
with  its  welcome  the  lips  and  eyes  that  have  long 
been  dust.  The  mountains  melt,  the  city  vanishes, 
the  seas  dry  up,  the  crowded  years  fade  out  of  sight ; 
the  soul  is  alone,  with  its  suffering  or  its  song;  and 
in  the  intense  renewal  of  its  experience  the  distant 
and  the  near  are  both  alike.  It  is  doubtful  if  an  im- 
pression once  consciously  received,  by  a  definite  act 
of  attention  and  thought,  is  ever  lost,  or  can  be,  by 
the  mind.  It  is  doubtful,  even,  if  an  involuntary  im- 
pression, really  although  unconsciously  accepted,  can 
ever  afterward  be  obliterated  from  it.  The  Soul  has 
such  vital  and  marvellous  energy,  it  so  catches  up,  in- 
fixes, and  eternizes  whatever  of  thought  proceeds  within 
it,  that  it  often  retains  what  it  seemed  at  the  out- 
set scarcely  to  have  noticed,  and  justifies  the  doubt 
whether  any  thing  is  ever  lost  by  it.  Thus  instances 
are  on  record,  you  know,  in  which  those  who  had 
heard  passages  from  a  foreign  and  perfectly  unintel- 
ligible tongue,  which  seemed  of  course  to  have  passed 
at  once  from  out  their  recollection,  as  the  breath  fades 
off  from  the  polished  mirror — ^have  afterwards  recalled 
these  in  delirium  or  death,  or  at  some  moment  of 
extraordinary  excitement,  with  the  utmost  clearness 
and  fulness  of  detail.  And  the  instances  are  frequent, 
within  our  observation,  in  which  aged  men  recall  with 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE,  105 

vivid  distinctness  the  poetry  they  recited,  the  prob- 
lems they  studied,  the  games  they  played,  in  the 
freshness  of  youth,  or  the  arguments  they  made  in 
the  prime  of  their  manhood ;  although  a  thousand  in- 
tervening events,  which  had  taken  a  prominence  before 
them  since  that  these  never  had,  seemed  to  have 
submerged  these  forever  in  their  thoughts. 

What  a  power,  then,  is  this !  and  how  du'ectly 
related  to  the  gathering  of  Knowledge !  Made  inde- 
pendent of  the  limitations  of  states  by  its  Judgment 
and  its  Reason,  the  soul  is  made  equally  independ- 
ent of  years  by  this  faculty  of  Memory.  In  its 
highest  activity,  the  whole  of  its  experience  becomes 
a  Now  to  it.  It  can  summon  back  the  Past;  can 
bring  near  the  Distant;  can  give  immortality  to  its 
every  acquisition.  In  this  it  shows  its  innate  and 
entire  superiority  to  the  body ;  its  likeness  in  con- 
stiution  to  the  mind  of  the  Most  High.  The  retina 
of  the  eye  retains  no  trace  of  the  form  that  has 
impressed  it,  when  that  has  retired  to  give  place  to 
another.  An  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  second  is  the 
longest  time  allowed  for  its  retention.  The  tym- 
panum of  the  ear  will  vibrate  no  longer,  when  the 
music  or  the  clamor  that  arrested  and  aroused  it  has 
subsided  into  silence.  But  that  invisible  yet  living 
Spirit,  which  watches  through  the  eye,  and  hearkens 
through    the   ear,   and    which   takes    instant    note    of 


106 

whatever  surrounds  it,  has  caught  the  sight  and  the 
sound  now  vanished,  and  it  will  keep  them  forever. 
It  writes  its  records,  not  as  the  Roman  Laws  were 
written,  first  on  wood,  then  on  brass,  and  afterwards 
on  ivory;  but  at  once  on  a  tablet  more  impressible 
than  wood,  more  vivid  than  brass,  more  precious  than 
ivory,  and  more  imperishable  than  either.  Show  again 
the  same  sight,  strike  again  the  same  sound,  and  over 
the  passage  of  throngs  of  years,  it  will  recognize  their 
identity. 

Our  knowledge  becomes  cumulative,  progressive, 
through  this  power.  Opportunity  is  given  at  once  for 
enlarging  it,  and  for  making  it  accurate ;  each  prin- 
ciple once  affirmed  becoming  a  new  stone  in  the 
building  of  our  knowledge;  each  subsequent  acquisi- 
tion contributing  to  expand,  to  rectify,  or  complete, 
those  previously  made.  If  the  soul  had  not  this 
power  of  recollection,  evidently  its  knowledge  would 
at  once  be  resolved  into  present  impressions,  uncon- 
nected with  the  Past,  unprophetic  of  the  Future; 
fleeting  into  air  the  moment  they  were  made,  and 
leaving  no  trace.  But  now,  put  a  thought  into  its 
keeping,  and  years  after  you  shall  find  it  there,  fresh 
as  at  first,  though  now  not  isolated,  but  grouped  with 
many.  Let  a  principle  be  accepted  which  is  doubt- 
ful or  untrue,  and  it  shall  afterwards  be  modified,  as 
the    better    thoughts    of    other    minds    are    measured 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  107 

against  it ;  as  its  relations  to  our  previous  knowledge 
are  more  carefully  ascertained ;  as  life  and  its  expe- 
rience demonstrate  its  unsoundness.  One  fact  appre- 
hended, may  be  put  with  another ;  and  these  with 
others  still,  with  all  related  and  parallel  facts,  as  they 
successively  are  brought  to  our  view  ;  till  the  struc- 
tures of  Science  become  extended  and  adequate.  One 
art  may  be  added  to  another  in  the  soul ;  new 
sciences  to  the  former  ones ;  philosophies,  histories, 
may  be  progressively  mastered  ;  the  ability  to  marshaU 
arguments,  be  supplemented  by  the  ability  to  gladden 
the  fancy  and  to  arouse  the  feelings ;  till  the  man  be- 
comes thoroughly  equipped  and  accomplished,  a  fur- 
nished, powerful,  and  energizing  Thinker,  through  the 
ministry  of  this  power.  It  gives  the  real  value  to  aU 
the  other  intellectual  faculties  which  I  have  sketched. 
It  multiplies  that  value  by  a  factor  which  the  sum  of 
the  instants  of  our  being,  from  the  first  to  the  last, 
were  inadequate  to  express.  And  it  holds  in  it  the 
prophecy  of  stiU  loftier  attainments  to  be  made  in 
the  Future. 

And  yet,  as  I  said — and  therefore^  I  might  have 
said — this  faculty  is  one  universal  among  men,  the  loss 
of  which  implies  a  radical  spiritual  change  and  injury. 
It  shows  the  soul,  therefore,  wherever  that  meets  us, 
kindred  with  God's.  Making  the  three  score  years  of 
life  to  be  to  it  but  a  day,  enabling  it  to  act  in  an 


108 


innate  superiority  over  distances  and  times,  and  over 
intervals  of  experience,  it  allies  it  with  His  mind,  who 
never  has  lost  a  single  thought ;  to  whom  the  ages  are 
now  all  present;  who  keeps,  in  His  eternal  conscious- 
ness, the  secrets  and  the  forms  of  universal  existence. 
There  is  hardly  another  power,  the  communication  of 
which  to  the  finite  Intelligence  reveals  more  clearly 
the  entire  supremacy  and  omnipotence  of  God.  There 
is  no  other  which  shows  more  clearly,  with  unanswer- 
able demonstration,  both  His  kindness  and  His  wisdom. 

My  friends,  we  have  here  reached  the  end  of  the 
discussion  which  I  proposed  in  this  Lecture.  There 
are  other  points  which  might  be  noticed,  but  these 
are  the  main  ones,  and  the  hour  and  your  patience, 
both  long  since  exhausted,  forbid  me  to  continue.  As 
we  pause,  then,  at  this  point,  and  look  back  over  the 
course  we  have  rapidly  traversed,  does  not  the  whole 
character  as  well  as  the  power  of  Him  who  framed  the 
human  soul  to  be  the  subject  of  Knowledge,  become 
evident  to  us  ?  With  what  wondrous  particularity 
and  completeness  of  finish  has  he  fitted  it  for  this 
office  !  With  the  power  of  perceiving  outward  facts 
and  existences.  He  unites  in  it  the  power  of  examining 
itself,  and  reading  its  own  invisible  operations.  To 
both  he  adds  the  power  of  analysing  and  comparing, 
of  interpreting  into  laws,  of  distributing  in  order,  the 


CAPABLE     OF     KNOWLEDGE.  109 

phenomena  thus  observed.  He  fits  it  to  look  out  on 
the  Ideal,  as  on  the  Actual,  and  moves  it  by  the  im- 
pulse of  its  very  constitution  to  affirm  those  essential 
primitive  truths  which  underlie  all  others,  and  to 
contemplate  those  supreme  though  invisible  ideas  Tvhich 
govern  eternally  in  the  sphere  of  moral  principles. 
What,  it  gathers  it  retains,  too ;  and  drops  with  years 
no  item  of  the  gains  which  years  have  brought  it. 
"  Full  of  eyes,"  is  the  spirit ;  able  '  to  look  before  and 
after ;'  to  look  outward,  inward,  around,  above ;  and 
to  keep  in  its  remembrance  all  which  it  discovers.  We 
hardly  need,  then,  the  records  of  history,  to  tell  us 
what  its  performance  will  be,  when  sent  to  act  on  the 
arena  of  the  earth;  how  sciences,  arts,  inventions, 
philosophies,  histories,  poetries,  religions,  will  spring 
from  it ;  how  every  form  of  human  utterance  will 
gradually  become  rich  with  the  treasures  of  its  thought ; 
till  navies  sink,  and  cities  vanish,  before  the  vast 
accumulations  of  knowledge  with  which  the  stream 
of  Time  comes  freighted,  which  outlast  governments 
and  states  themselves.  We  hardly  need  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Scripture  to  show  us  beforehand,  that 
when  it  is  released  from  its  bondage  to  the  clay,  when 
all  its  powers  are  renewed  and  illuminated  by  change 
to  higher  spheres,  no  department  of  the  creation  shall 
be  too  distant  for  the  search  of  this  Soul,  too  high  for 
its   study,   or  too   broad  f6r  its  survey;    no  lapse  of 


110  THE     HUMAN     SOUL. 

years  sufficing  to  interrupt  the  continuity  of  its 
thought;  no  theme  of  philosophy,  or  theology  it- 
self, becoming  too  majestic  for  its  intent  scrutiny. 
Already,  we  know,  it  can  compass  and  surpass  the 
earth ;  can  range  over  the  Past ;  can  receive  from 
others,  interpret  nature,  explain  itself.  It  is  competent, 
even,  to  consider  Revelations ;  and,  accepting  their 
lessons,  to  think  again  the  thoughts  of  God,  to  under- 
stand His  mighty  plans,  and  almost  to  share  His 
prescience  of  events.  Intellectually,  then,  it  is  His 
representative.  The  solid  earth  is  not  too  vast,  too 
beauteous,  or  too  firm,  to  be  the  cradle  of  its  august 
being.  Above  all  uttered  praises  of  its  speech,  ascends 
each  moment  the  praise  returned  by  its  sublime  and 
living  frame,  to  Him  who  formed  it!  Regarding  it, 
as  He  left  it,  with  its  faculties  and  forces  all  springing 
into  developement,  with  its  fitness  to  gather  and  its 
fitness  to  keep  the  elements  of  truth,  with  its  power 
of  judgment  and  its  vision  of  Reason,  that  transcend 
innately  all  the  limits  of  sense,  God  well  might  say 
of  it :   "  Behold,  it  is  good  !" 


LECTURE   III. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

In  the  last  Lecture  of  this  course,  it  was  my 
aim  to  set  forth,  as  far  as  it  could  be  done  within 
the  necessary  limits  prescribed  to  these  discourses, 
the  constitution  of  the  Human  Soul  as  related  to 
Knowledge;  as  preparing  man  for  successful  and  emi- 
nent progress  in  the  mastery  of  Truth.  That  this 
is  a  Good,  intrinsic  and  permanent,  needs  no  demon- 
stration. The  instincts  of  every  soul  perceive  it  to 
be  such.  The  spontaneous  effort  of  every  one,  who 
is  conscious  of  the  value  and  dignity  of  his  being, 
declares  it  to  be  such.  And  the  large  apparatus  of 
Educational  helps  which  each  more  advanced  com- 
munity prepares,  and  the  preparation  of  which  more 
than  any  thing  else  attests  its  real  progress  in  civil- 
ization, is  itself  the  sufficient  exhibition  of  the  fact. 
He  who  knows  the  facts,  the  forces,  and  the  laws 
which  prevail  around  him,  who  has  an  acquaintance 
with  the  systems  of  Being  that  are  concentric  with 
his  own,  with  the  'principles  that  pervade  and  the 
rules   that   guide  them — he,  in  other   words,  who  ap- 


# 


112  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

prebends  and  has  appropriated  the  Truth  on  these 
themes, — is  superior  to  him  whose  knowledge  is  less. 
He  has  realized  a  good  as  real  and  permanent  as 
the  mind  itself ;  a  good  which  all  fine  spirits  crave ; 
a  good,  the  fruit  whereof  is  better  than  gold,  and  the 
revenue  of  it  than  choice  silver.  The  relation  which 
is  held  then  by  the  constitution  of  the  Soul  to  the 
attainment  of  such  Knowledge,  is  a  proper  test  of 
God's  wisdom  in  forming  it.  If  it  be  framed  with 
reference  to  this,  and  be  interiorly  adapted  to  it,  it 
shows  us  evidently  both  His  power  and  His  goodness. 
There  were  passed  in  review,  therefore,  in  the 
progress  of  the  discussion,  rapidly  indeed,  yet  clearly 
enough  I  trust  for  my  purpose,  the  various  faculties 
Avhich  inhere  in  the  Soul,  adapting  it  to  this  good; 
first,  the  power  of  apprehending  and  observing  what 
is  outward,  a  power  most  familiar  to  our  experience 
and  our  use,  yet  mysterious  and  unsearchable  in  both 
its  nature  and  its  action;  then  the  power  of  reflection 
and  self-inspection,  by  which  the  mind  can  consider 
independently  its  own  action  and  state,  and  scruti- 
nize the  experiences  which  hold  within  them  the  se- 
crets of  its  constitution ;  then,  the  yet  higher  power 
of  examining  the  facts  thus  brought  to  our  notice, 
of  distinguishing  the  invisible  forces  which  are  in 
them,  and  of  distributing  and  combining  these  in  a 
systematic  order; — ^a  power  from  which,  as  connected 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  113 

with  the  others,  spring  sciences  and  philosophies,  and 
all  forms  of  invention;  then,  the  power  of  Reason, 
or  otherwise  of  Imagination,  by  which  we  affirm  and 
contemplate  the  truths  which  are  supreme  and  invis- 
ible, having  no  immediate  exhibition  in  phenomena, 
being  involved  in  our  consciousness,  but  not  directly 
appealing  to  it ;  and,  finally,  the  power  of  memory, 
or  recollection,  by  which  the  mind  retains  in  its  pos- 
session, and  is  able  afterward  to  represent  to  itself, 
independently  of  the  lapses  and  changes  of  time,  the 
impressions  once  received,  the  knowledge  once  gained. 
These  faculties  all  belong,  constitutionally,  to  the 
Human  Soul.  They  are  not  rare  and  extraordinary  in 
it,  they  are  universal ;  the  elements  of  its  native  and 
normal  endowment;  not  attributes  of  a  special  and  dis- 
tinguishing genius,  but  the  usual  and  familiar  equipment 
of  mental  life.  And  by  them  the  mind  is  amply  pre- 
pared for  the  attainment  of  knowledge.  Sciences,  his- 
tories, poetries,  art,  theologies  even,  and  the  higher 
philosophies,  are  gathered  by  it  through  these.  They 
spring  forth  from  these,  in  the  natural  developement, 
the  legitimate  use  of  them.  And  in  the  present  exist- 
ence and  action  of  these  fine  faculties,  in  the  attain- 
ments they  here  make,  and  the  higher  attainments  for 
which  they  look,  we  have  the  prophecy  that  if  their  ex- 
istence continue  in  the  Future,  and  if  their  opportuni- 
ties there  are  enlarged,  with  each  extension  of  the  range 


114  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

of  their  action  they  shall  gain  fresh  knowledge,  till 
they  find  no  truth  too  distant  or  too  difficult  to  be 
explored  and  appropriated.  No  other  power  is  im- 
aginable by  us,  as  necessary  to  complete,  or  as  pos- 
sible to  be  added  to,  this  mental  constitution.  It  is, 
in  its  nature,  full-orbed  and  complete. 

So  far  as  we  have  gone,  then,  in  our  survey  of 
the  Soul,  an  impression  of  the  Goodness,  the  Wis- 
dom, and  the  Power  of  Him  who  formed  it, — who 
planned  it  at  the  outset,  and  by  whose  power  it 
now  subsists, — can  hardly,  I  think,  have  failed  to  be 
received  by  us.  Both  his  character  and  his  energy 
are  exhibited  more  clearly  than  in  all  the  structures 
of  the  outward  creation,  in  this  invisible,  but  living, 
inspecting,  and  "intellectual  spirit,  which  scans  His 
works,  which  investigates  itself,  and  which  seeks  to 
comprehend  and  reproduce  in  its  thought  His  plan 
of  the  universe.  So  far,  at  least,  it  bears  His  im- 
age; and  higher  than  all  other  forces  or  things,  within 
the  compass  of  the  terrestrial  system,  through  its 
equipped  frame  it  shows  forth  His  glory ! 

But  now  we  are  further  to  consider  this  Soul,  in 
its  relation  to  Virtue,  another  great  Good ;  and  to  see 
how  far  it  is  constituted  for  that;  with  what  facul- 
ties and  aptitudes,  preparing  it  to  attain  that,  it  is  fur- 
nished by  its  author.  Here  another  test  is  offered  of 
the    character  and    the  competence   of  Him   who  ere- 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  115 

ated  it ;  and  another  exhibition  of  His  perfections 
may  be  sought. 

The  description  of  Virtue  is  simply  this :  Intelli- 
gent   AND    VOLUNTARY  OBEDIENCE    TO    THE     PERFECT    MORAL 

Law  ordained  by  the  Divine  Author  for  his  spiritual 
CREATION.  How  great  a  good  it  is,  then,  for  each,  for 
all,  will  be  apparent  as  we  contemplate  it. 

There  is  a  system  of  laws  in  the  physical  creation, 
established  by  its  Maker  to  guide  and  govern  this 
outward  frame  of  things.  It  becomes  apparent  the 
moment  we  regard  this,  and  in  obedience  to  it  all 
moves  in  order.  It  is  divided  and  sub-divided  into 
many  details,  which  it  is  the  office  of  Science  to 
explore  and  express  in  their  inter-connected  and 
complex  developement.  Yet  all  these  details  are 
harmonious  with  each  other,  and  the  system  which 
combines  them  is  evidently  one.  It  exists  in  its 
perfection,  and  governs  with  absolute  and  unvaried 
control,  at  every  point  of  the  outward  creation  which 
we  visit  or  inspect ;  and  we  infer  by  induction,  with  a 
certainty  not  less  than  if  we  were  taught  it  by  instant 
observation,  that  with  a  ubiquitous  authority  like  its 
Author's,  which  instantly  connects  it  with  His  omni- 
present and  perfect  mind,  it  extends  every  whither, 
and  in  some  of  its  main  requirements  at  least  is  as  valid 
and  controlling  throughout  the  universe  as  on  our 
globe.      The  law  of  gravitation,  for  example,  or  that 


116  '  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

of  cohesive  attraction,  must  evidently  extend  through- 
out all  realms  of  organized  matter;  encompassing  and 
upholding  the  distant  nebulse  which  no  telescope  has 
yet  resolved  into  suns,  as  well  as  our  planet;  governing 
even  the  comet  in  its  flights,  and  bringing  it  back, 
punctual  as  the  seasons,  at  the  hour  appointed.  The 
laws  of  chemical  affinity  and  combination,  the  laws  of 
electricity,  of  the  motion  of  fluids,  of  the  relations  of 
colors,  of  the  distribution  of  sounds,  the  laws  of  light, 
its  movement  and  its  effects,  the  laws  of  heat,  its 
propagation  and  its  influence,  the  laws  which  regulate 
muscular  action,  which  govern  the  growths  of  the 
vegetable  world,  or  which  limit  and  uphold  the  vital 
sensibiHty; — all  these  we  meet  at  every  turn,  in  the 
system  which  we  occupy,  and  of  which  the  body  forms 
a  prominent  part.  And  we  know  that  everywhere  on 
the  earth  they  obtain ;  that  no  shore  is  so  distant,  no 
peak  so  high,  no  tribe  of  men  so  rude  or  so  refined,  that 
there  as  here  these  Laws  are  not  supreme. 

And;  in  obedience  to  this  system  of  organizing  laws, 
to  this  orderly  and  authoritative  constitution  of  the 
creation,  the  phenomena  which  we  observe  continually 
arise.  Colors  brighten,  dews  descend,  the  fire  burns, 
the  cold  congeals,  the  light  irradiates  land  and  sea, 
the  Earth  wheels  silent  and  calm  beneath  us,  germs 
develope,  clouds  dissolve,  seasons  return,  in  steady 
procession  the  tides  are  lifted  along  the  billowy  surface 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  117 

of  the  deep,  beneath  their  constant  and  perfect  com- 
mand. The  sun,  the  planets,  their  rings  and  satellites, 
and  all  the  component  parts  of  each,  are  held  upon 
their  poise — more  distant  worlds,  even,  beyond  our 
sight,  beyond  the  reach  of  telescopic  survey,  are  kept 
upon  their  path,  moving  with  neither  rest  nor  haste 
nor  jar,  from  age  to  age — because  the  same  laws  there 
prevail;  while  every  frail  and  tiny  flower  that  blossoms 
in  the  woods  reveals  them  as  really,  one  might  almost 
say  as  vividly,  as  the  infinite  cope;  and  winds  and 
storms,  as  they  whirl  and  gyrate  along  the  impetuous 
zigzag  of  their  career,  are  as  perfectly  at  each  instant 
obedient  to  these  as  any  wave  that  breaks  upon  the 
beach,  as  any  Iris  arching  the  cataract.  Imperious, 
irresistible,  are  these  physical  laws.  They  operate 
with  a  self-executive  energy,  derived  indeed  from  the 
will  of  the  Supreme,  but  independent  of  any  creature. 
We  must  accept  them,  or  we  must  be  crushed  by  them. 
We  cannot  alter,  by  one  hair's  breadth,  their  definite 
lines.  We  cannot  restrain  their  controlling  operation. 
— Such  is  the  system  of  forces  and  ordinances  which 
God  has  interwrought  with  the  physical  creation,  by 
which  it  is  inwardly  locked  together,  is  founded  and 
furnished,  and  made  a  home  for  spiritual  beings. 

And  now  in  the  spiritual  world  there  is  also  a  Law^ 
or  a  constitution  of  laws,  appropriate  to  its  different 
and  higher  forms  of  being,  and  adapted  to  work  out, 


118  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

SO  far  as  they  are  obeyed,  a  moral  order  akin  to  but 
vastly  superior  to  that  which  is  produced  throughout 
matter  by  those  which  I  have  mentioned.  These  laws 
show  resemblances,  correspondences,  at  many  points 
with  those  w^hich  prevail  in  the  physical  world.  They 
run  parallel  with  those,  though  on  a  higher  plane. 
The  analogies  between  them  are  so  frequent  and  so 
striking  as  almost  of  themselves  to  demonstrate  the 
origin  of  the  two  related  but  separate  systems  in  the 
same  ordaining  and  uncontrolled  Mind.  Yet  the  latter 
differ  widely,  even  radically,  from  the  former,  in  the 
mode  of  their  operation,  as  applying  to  another  departs 
ment  of  being,  and  as  having  a  loftier  purpose  to 
subserve.  Expressing  the  eternal  principles  of  Right, 
embodying  these  in  statutes  and  rules,  and  enforcing 
them  by  penalties,  these  moral  laws  stiU  apply  for 
consent  to  those  whom  they  address.  Acting  not  on 
passive  materials  and  elements,  but  on  spiritual  beings, 
they  are  inhibited  by  their  nature  from  exercising  or 
claiming  an  irresistible  control.  Their  subjects  may 
accept  and  incorporate  them,  if  they  will.  They  do 
not  by  force  control  and  direct  those,  as  the  laws  of 
the  earth  do. 

Thus  Love  is,  in  the  spiritual  world,  what  the 
powers  of  attraction,  resulting  in  beautiful  harmonies 
of  combination  and  inter-relation,  are  seen  to  be  in  the 
physical.      But  the  subject  of  the   law  which  claims 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  119 

Love  from  moral  beings  must  freely  accept  its  benefi- 
cent rule;  while  the  crystal  cannot  choose  another 
finish  for  its  angles,  or  the  star  select  for  itself  a  rule 
which  will  square  it  instead  of  rounding  it.  Humility 
in  the  heart  is  likened  by  the  poets,  with  an  instinctive 
sense  of  the  fitness  of  the  simile,  to  those  delicate 
forces,  those  modest  influences,  which  are  shown  in 
the  almost  personal  beauty  of  the  violet,  or  the  ane- 
mone. But  the  youth,  or  the  maiden,  must  freely 
accept,  and  personally  realize,  the  law  which  requires 
humility  in  the  heart;  while  the  violet,  with  its 
delicate  and  appealing  beauty,  is  built  up  under  laws 
exterior  to  itself,  concerning  which  it  has  no  liberty 
of  election.  So,  everywhere,  the  laws  which  are  im- 
pressed by  the  Divine  Mind  on  the  spiritual  creation, 
and  which  properly  are  termed  by  us  Moral  laws, 
are  different  from  those  which  uphold  or  govern  in 
the  physical  constitution.  They  do  not  invoke  an 
involuntary  obedience.  They  ask  always  the  assent 
of  the  subjects  whom  they  address.  These  may  obey 
them ;  or  they  may,  if  they  choose,  neglect  and  reject 
them.  In  accepting  and  reahzing  them,  with  intelli- 
gent, free  and  patient  fidelity,  is  the  essence  of  Virtue. 
In  neglecting  or  rejecting  them,  is  the  element  of 
Unrighteousness. 

This  Virtue  is  therefore  intrinsically  a  Good ;  a  good 
for  each,  a  good  for  all;  a  good  that  is  greater,  and 


120  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

in  its  nature  more  admirable,  not  only  than  all  material 
acquisition,  which  is  perishable  and  gross,  which  even 
a  fine  and  highly  developed  esthetic  taste  declares 
itself  repulsed  from  as  a  goal  of  endeavour,  but 
greater  than  enjoyment,  or  even  than  knowledge. 
It  lays  its  demand  on  higher  powers.  As  realized  by 
any  being  it  contributes  more  directly  to  the  true 
advancement  and  well-being  of  the  Universe,  confirm- 
ing its  order,  and  helping  it  to  work  out  its  real  and 
supreme  ends.  It  brings  one  nearer  the  soul  of  God, 
and  makes  him  not  only  a  subject  but  a  child  of  that 
eternal  and  righteous  Mind  which  forever  hath  loved 
Virtue  with  an  infinite  enthusiasm,  which  reared  the 
worlds  to  be  its  realm,  which  fills  the  starry  courts 
with  its  glory,  and  which  ever  puts  on  it  the  highest 
honor.  It  is  the  grandest  accomplishment  attainable 
by  any  living  and  thoughtful  being! 

And  so,  for  substance,  all  nations  have  adjudged  it. 
Virtue  has  been  honored,  if  not  by  the  popular  and 
vitiated  taste,  at  least  by  the  earnest  and  elevated 
thoughts  of  all  calm  and  wise  thinkers,  as  among  the 
noblest  of  human  Ideals;  the  most  high  and  precious 
achievement  of  man.  As  men  have  sought  it  more 
earnestly,  and  have  realized  it  more  successfully,  the 
world,  if  not  their  own  local  tribe,  the  ages  of  History, 
if  not  their  own  years,  have  honored  them  more  truly, 
and  rewarded  them  more  royally.     When  the  moralist 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  121 

inculcates  the  severe  discipline  of  inward  purity,  and 
holds  up  to  emulation  the  austere  glory  of  a  virtuous 
self-control,  his  words  have  a  charm  for  the  ear  of 
the  centuries  which  the  most  refined  wit,  the  most 
elaborate  scholarship,  or  the  most  ornate  and  urgent 
eloquence,  if  administering  to  license,  never  attains. 
His  immediate  contemporaries  may  not  hear  or  heed 
him;  but  other  lands,  and  after  generg^tions,  shall 
preserve  and  revere  his  quickening  words,  and  his  name 
shall  be  reckoned  among  the  great  harbingers  who 
have  heralded  the  advances  of  true  social  well-being. 
When  the  patriot  or  the  philanthropist,  like  John 
Hampden  or  Granville  Sharpe,  or  like  our  own  Win- 
throp,  Washington,  or  John  Jay,  rises  out  of  the 
immediate  suggestions  of  the  hour,  becomes  superior 
to  its  flattering  invitations,  and  dedicates  himself  to 
an  unselfish  Virtue,  promoting  the  welfare  of  a  people 
through  righteousness,  he  accomplishes  a  victory  over 
the  hearts  of  mankind  which  the  most  brilliant  cam- 
paigns of  successful  ambition  cannot  parallel  and  cannot 
shadow.  Men  retreat  to  his  name  as  to  a  shelter 
against  temptation.  They  mark  the  highest  attain- 
ment he  has  made,  to  inspire  their  own  zeal.  The 
reverence  of  centuries  surrounds  his  memory,  and 
enshrines  it  like  a  temple. 

So  when  the  disciples  of  any  truth  die  for  it,  not 
in   a   passionate   spirit   of  combat,   but  in   a   supreme 


122  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

fidelity  to  their  conviction,  in  a  love  for  the  truth 
which  no  temptation  turns  aside  and  no  violence 
overbears ;  when  sacrificing  all  comfort  and  ease  for 
that  truth,  they  spread  it  by  voice,  and  life,  and 
suffering,  on  land  and  sea;  when  any  patient  and 
long-tried  sufferer,  amid  seclusion,  poverty,  and  neg- 
lect, retains  unabated  his  cheerful  love  for  God  and 
truth,  maintains  a  spirit  of  generous  charity,  and  is 
as  eager  for  others'  welfare  as  if  the  frame  were  full 
of  force  and  lapped  in  peace; — in  all  these  instances, 
and  the  others  that  are  like  them,  we  recognize  a 
dignity,  an  authority  of  example,  which  power  could 
not  give,  and  which  it  cannot  invade ;  which  genius 
itself,  dissevered  from  such  a  spirit,  can  never  replace, 
but  in  celebrating  which  that  achieves  its  highest  works. 
Disinterestedness,  in  its  simplest  and  most  familiar 
exhibition,  is  felt  to  be  grander  than  mental  accom- 
plishments; as  the  diamond  which  one  wears  upon  a 
ring  or  a  pin,  or  sets  upon  a  brooch,  surpasses  in  value 
the  whole  mountain  side  against  which  it  rests.  It  is 
other  in  nature ;  of  a  quality  incomparable.  The  mind 
that  has  been  smit  with  the  poetic  extasy  excites 
our  admiration.  The  heart  that  has  been  touched 
with  inspirations  to  Virtue,  draws  out  spontaneously 
our  reverence  and  homage.  The  man  who  enlightens 
and  enlarges  human  thought — pursuing  •  some  vein  of 
scientific   exploration  to  the   treasures  which   it  leads 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  123 

to,  discoursing  instructively  of  the  problems  of  Philos- 
ophy, or  unrolling  the  majestic  developements  of 
History  for  our  quickening  and  instruction — deserves 
well  of  his  age,  and  takes  rank  with  its  benefactors. 
But  the  man  who  is  loosed  of  the  dominion  of  selfish- 
ness, who  accepts  as  his  rule  of  character  and  action 
the  pure  law  of  goodness,  who  with  free  dedication 
devotes  himself  to  that,  and  heroically  reduces  its 
precepts  to  practice,  translating  into  Life  the  law  of 
Love — ^he  reveals  not  power  and  diligence  merely, 
which  any  man  may  show,  but  a  property  of  soul 
peculiar  to  himself,  which  enhances  and  sublimes 
every  other  acquisition.  It  is  not  Religion,  alone,  it 
is  Philosophy  as  well,  which  recognises  in  him,  in 
that  application  and  developement  of  his  force,  assimi- 
lation to  His  character  who  founded  the  sentient  and 
intelligent  creation,  impressing  upon  it  the  law  of 
Righteousness,  and  whom  the  pure  forever  worship  as 
the  Supreme  Excellence.  The  few  august  imperial 
names,  along  the  march  of  civilization,  whose  spotless 
standards  never  fail,  whose  place  of  authority  never  is 
questioned,  have  been  those  of  this  order;  who  have 
not  succumbed  to  the  government  of  selfishness,  but 
have  realized  approximately  the  law  of  Virtue  ! 

What  powers,  then,  has  the  Soul  for  this  highest 
attainment  ?  If  furnished  for  it  by  Him  who  created 
it,  it  shows  us  yet  again,   in  still  brighter  exhibition. 


124 

both  His  Power,  His  Wisdom,  and  the  Goodness  which 
guides  them.  If  not  thus  furnished,  the  highest 
demonstration  of  these  attributes  in  Him  which  has 
thus  far  been  sought,  must  be  admitted  to  be  wanting. 

I.  For  one  thing,  then,  which  is  clear  and  indis- 
putable, the  Soul  has  A  Moral  Sense,  innate  and 
indestructible ;  a  faculty,  that  is,  which  intuitively  per- 
ceives the  reality  of  Virtue^  its  dignity  and  beauty,  and 
its  proper  authority  over  human  action  ;  a  faculty  which 
makes  Man  the  proper  subject  of  virtuous  appeals, 
and  upon  which,  as  a  basis,  all  moral  instruction  and 
cultivation  may  go  forward. 

This  Moral  Sense,  as  it  has  been  properly  styled, 
holds  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  virtue  in  con- 
duct and  character,  which  the  sense  of  hearing  holds 
to  harmony  in  sounds ;  or,  more  exactly,  the  same 
which  that  inner  sensibility  to  the  Beautiful,  which 
certainly  does  subsist  in  the  soul,  holds  to  the  rela- 
tion of  forms  and  colors,  or  the  melody  of  voices,  in 
the  outward  creation.  It  shows  itself  readily,  and  is 
familiar  to  us  all.  When  an  instance  of  undeniable 
and  exemplary  goodness  is  presented  to  it,  it  recog- 
nizes that  immediately,  instinctively ;  and  feels  it  a 
proper  and  noble  subject  for  analysis  and  contem- 
plation. A  moral  .  approbation,  even,  is  experienced 
toward  it,  quite  different  from,  though  nowise  op- 
posed to,  the  esthetic  approbation   experienced  by  the 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  125 

Taste  in  the  presence  of  beauty.  It  differs  entirely, 
this  moral  approbation,  from  any  admiration  of  the 
intelKgence  or  the  daring  expressed  in  the  act.  It 
fastens  on  the  goodness,  the  virtuousness  of  that 
act,  and  shows  the  soul  to  be  inwardly  gratified  with 
its  ethical  harmonies.  And  correspondingly  opposite, 
though  equally  immediate,  is  its  attitude  toward  vice. 
Intuitively  this  sense  recognizes,  instinctively  it  rep- 
robates,— by  its  very  constitution  condemning  when 
it  sees, — an  evident  and  intended  violation  of  equity, 
for  selfish  gain.  It  discerns  it  as  naturally  as  the 
eye  discerns  deformity  in  figures.  It  repulses  it  as 
the  Taste  repels  grossness  of  outline,  or  a  coarse  and 
oifensive   disharmony   in   colors. 

Of  course  I  speak  now  of  this  Moral  Sense  in 
the  earliest  and  most  pure  exhibition  of  its  force. 
It  is  undoubtedly  possible,  by  a  course  of  wrong- 
doing,* or  even  by  habitual  contemplation  and  advo- 
cacy of  wrong  propositions,  in  ethics  or  politics,  in 
philosophy  or  in  practical  life,  greatly  to  darken, 
though  not  wholly  to  obliterate,  its  intrinsic  convic- 
tion of  the  rightfulness  of  Virtue,  and  of  its  unique 
majesty;  just  as  it  is  possible,  by  never  educating 
the  Taste,  by  systematically  on  the  other  hand  ne- 
glecting or  perverting  it,  to  diminish  very  greatly  the 
promptness  and  justness  of  its  fine  action,  and  al- 
most to  destroy  the  sensibility  itself.     But  the  fact  that 


126 


the  Taste  in  one  man  acts  wrongly,  while  in  another 
it  acts  purely,  with  a  normal  developement  of  its  na- 
tive tendencies, — -the  fact  that  entirely  arbitrary  stand- 
ards are  sometimes  formed,  and  are  oftener  obeyed 
by  it,  so  that  one  prefers  the  pinched  foot,  another 
the  cramped  waist,  another  the  artificially  darkened 
nails  and  eyebrows,  another  the  immense  ascending 
piles  of  the  Elizabethan  coiffure,  instead  of  the  free 
and  wavy  grace,  the  natural  ease  and  purity  of  as- 
pect, which  gave  their  glory  to  the  statuary  of 
Greece, — so  that  one  prefers  trees  artificially  clipped, 
to  represent  grenadiers,  balloons,  or  temples,  while 
another  can  see  in  such  invasions  of  nature  only  a 
ribald  mockery  of  her  charms — this  certainly  does  not 
show,  it  is  accepted  by  no  one  as  sufficient  to  dem- 
onstrate, that  there  is  in  man  no  instinct  of  Taste, 
or  even  that  such  is  not  universal.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  very  perversion  of  the  faculty  declares  its 
reality,  and  through  all  these  ridiculous  and  unnair 
ural  exhibitions  its  activity  is  revealed. 

And  so  in  the  Moral  constitution  of  man,  which 
makes  him  appropriately  the  subject  of  Moral  Law, 
the  disciple  of  Virtue.  There  is  at  the  basis  a  sense 
of  Virtue,  which  sees  its  nobleness,  and  its  spiritual 
beauty,  and  which  recognizes  intuitively  its  instant 
authority.  This  may  be  perverted,  but  it  never  can 
be   destroyed;    and    sometimes   in  the   utmost  disad- 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  127 

vantage  of  position,  with  every  thing  to  embarrass  it, 
it  exhibits  itself  with  the  most  signal  energy. — It  is  im- 
possible, unless  we  accept  this  as  true,  to  account  for 
the  fact  already  brought  to  view,  and  which  is  cer- 
tainly indisputable,  that  all  nations,  so  far  as  history 
can  trace  them,  have  had  a  conception  of  what  was 
RIGHT  IN  ITSELF,  in  distinction  from  what  was  inviting 
and  expedient;  and  that  they  have  honored  their  ad- 
mirable characters  not  merely  or  mainly  because  ad- 
vantage and  strength  have  accrued  to  the  State  from 
their  endeavors,  but  because  those  endeavors  were 
noble  in  themselves,  and  the  character  which  they 
revealed  was  worthy  of  honor.  It  is  not  simply 
successful  patriotis*n  that  has  challenged  man's  rever- 
ence. The  unsuccessful,  which  was  self-devoted,  has 
sometimes  been  sung  more  loftily  and  sweetly.  Is 
it  not  this,  in  fact,  which  gives  their  theme,  which 
imparts  their  pathos  and  their  sublimest  significance, 
to  the  two  great  poems,  the  Grecian  and  the  Ro- 
man, which  the  Old  World  sends  to  our  Civiliza- 
tion ?  Generosity  has  never  been  held  so  admirable, 
so  truly  worthy  of  zealous  emulation  and  of  ever- 
lasting honor,  as  when  transcending  the  limitations  of 
prudence,  and  rising  to  entire  affectionate  self-sacri- 
fice. And  every  virtue  has  been  reckoned  more 
rare,  as  men  have  calmly  and  steadily  thought  of 
it,  m  proportion  as  it  has    been  interiorly   dissevered 


128 

from  all  relations  of  interest,  has  been  practised  and 
obeyed  because  right  in  itself.  Herein  then  we  find, 
apparent,  self-evidencing,  revealed  through  all  the 
obscurities  of  History  as  ^  hurtless  light'  through  the 
parted  clouds,  this  sense  in  the  soul,  universal  as  the 
race,  of  the  reality  and  the  authority  of  the  law 
of  Virtue.  Amid  the  confusions  and  perplexities  of 
politics,  over  all  the  combinations  and  the  antagonisms 
of  States,  the  violence  of  their  rulers,  and  the 
clamor  of  their  peoples,  this  sense  has  declared  ii> 
self;  as  the  pure  and  perfect  musical  tone  is  declared 
over  all  the  uproar  of  tongues.  The  actions  which  it 
celebrates  are  the  centres  of  History ;  and  the  names 
which  it  presents  as  worthy  of^  remembrance,  are 
the  names  which  the  world  never  ceases  to  revere. 
We  may  trace  the  operation  of  this  same  innate 
sense  in  any  child ;  we  may  see  it  in  our  conscious- 
ness. The  child  learns  first  what  is  smooth  or  is 
rough  to  the  physical  touch ;  what  is  pleasant  or 
disagreeable  to  the  hearing  or  the  taste ;  what  attracts 
or  repulses  the  sense  of  sight.  He  begins  then,  as  I 
said  in  the  preceding  Lecture,  to  separate  and  divide 
these,  the  one  from  the  other ;  putting  forth  thus,  un- 
consciously, the  action  of  a  power  which  looks  toward 
scientific  analysis  and  arrangement,  and  which  will  not 
be  satisfied  till  nature  is  investigated,  and  the  laws  of 
the  physical  creation  are  evolved.     By  degrees  he  be- 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  129 

eomes  sensible  of  the  relation  of  the  action  of  others 
to  himself;  and  then  there  is  shown  in  him — not  bom 
in  him  then,  but  then  for  the  first  time  exhibited 
in  liim,  as  the  hidden  writing  is  drawn  out  from  parch- 
ment by  the  contact  of  heat. — the  sense  of  the  rad- 
ical and  authoritative  Right,  distinguished  from  the 
Wrong.  He  is  injured  maliciously.  It  is  not  simply 
the  sense  of  loss,  the  regret  for  a  misfortune,  which 
then  stirs  within  him;  as  if  a  door,  blown  to  by  the 
wind,  had  struck  his  hand,  or  a  storm  of  hail  had 
overtaken  him  in  the  woods.  Commingled  with  this, 
and  superior  to  it, — ^an  electric  sense^  in  the  midst  of 
the  slower  operations  of  the  judgment,  anticipating 
the  tardy  computations  of  prudfenoe,  and  stringing 
every  faculty  as  mere  reasoning  never  does — there 
flashes  into  his  mind  a  keen  indignation  at  the 
Wrong  that  has  been  done  him;  a  reprehension  of 
the  wickedness  which  has  violated  Right,  in  order  to 
assail  him. 

This  may  not  come  out  in  full  force  at  the  first. 
Men  often,  children  oftener,  feel  more  than  they  can 
utter;  and  our  sense  of  the  rightful,  like  our  sense 
of  the  beautiful,  needs  responses  from  other  minds  to 
eclaircise  and  confirm  it.  But  let  such  a  response  be 
given  to  it,  let  another  voice  say,  '  It  was  wrong  to 
do  that!'  and  how  quickly  and  fully,  with  how  vivid 
an  emphasis,,  the  chUd's  mind  accords !    The  conscious- 


130  THE     HUMAN     SOUL,    ' 

ness  of  Right,  of  its  reality,  its  authority,  its  ines- 
timable beauty,  becomes  articulate.  The  harmonious 
laws  of  the  moral  world  are  shown  to  have  been 
recognized,  in  their  validity  and  majesty,  not  less 
truly  though  less  evidently  than  the  laws  of  the  ma- 
terial, by  that  undeveloped  but  full-formed  soul.  What 
would  have  been  regret,  had  the  injury  been  natural, 
becomes  indignation  and  moral  condemnation,  when 
the  injury  is  moral.  The  necessity  of  repentance  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  forgiveness  on  the  other,  in 
order  to  the  re-establishment  of  normal  relations  be- 
tween the  offender  and  the  sufferer,  is  intuitively 
recognized.  And,  in  the  expected  absence  of  such 
repentance,  the  soul  runs  on  with  instinctive  celerity, 
and  affirms  the  certainty  of  a  punishment  to  follow. 
So  the  consciousness  of  the  child  gives  witness  to 
the  Law  which  the  eye  hath  not  seen,  which  the  ear 
with  its  delicate  conformation  hath  not  caught,  but 
which  is  around  us  every  where  in  the  universe,  and 
which  the  sensitive  soul  of  man,  by  the  testimony 
of  this  its  inner  moral  faculty,  knows  to  be   valid. 

That  innate  sense,  thus  clearly  shown,  survives  our 
youth  and  lives  in  manhood.  The  child  in  this  is 
*  Father  of  the  Man.'  Ail  language  expresses  it. 
It  is  familiar  to  our  experience. — Remorse,  or  peni- 
tence, is  centrally  different  from  disappointment,  or 
regret      Abhorrence   of  guUt,  is   not  the   same  thing 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  131 

wiiii  dread  of  disaster.  We  do  not  shrink  from  the 
shock  of  the  earthquake,  from  the  explosion  of  gun- 
powder, from  the  downfall  of  the  meteor,  as  we 
shrink  from  the  traitor  who  has  betrayed  great  in- 
terests. We  lock  up  or  kill  the  wild  beast,  from 
expediency;  because  we  would  not  have  life  destroyed, 
or  property  wasted.  In  the  punishment  of  the  crim- 
inal, is  a  something  higher  than  expediency-:  even  a  % 
moral  Retribution,  and  a  protest  against  wickedness. 
This  gives  to  all  just  Law  its  sacredness,  making  it 
truly  reverend  and  august.  This  ordains  it  an  edu- 
cating power  in  the  State ;  a  grander  teacher  than 
arts  or  letters.  This  makes  a  bad  statute  not  injurious 
only,  but  blasphemous,  even ;  a  harlot,  not  a  bride, 
which  hath  forgotten  righteousness,  and  turned  aside 
equity  for  purposes  of  gain.  The  rudest  language 
as  well  as  the  most  cultivated,  the  lowest  forms  of  a 
barbarian  democracy  as  well  as  the  highest  and  most 
elaborate  processes  of  a  national  jurisprudence,  include 
terms,  represent  mental  states,  are  based  upon  con- 
victions, are  regulated  by  precepts,  which  demonstrate 
the  sense  of  Right  in  the  soul ;  as  differenced  from 
the  judgment  of  what  is  expedient,  or  the  sense  of 
what  is  civilly  appropriate  and  comely.  • 

This  is  innate  in  the  soul,  and  therefore  universal. 
Education  could  not  have  implanted  it  where  it  was 
not ;  but  the  attempt  was    not    needful.      In  every 


132  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

man,  by  virtue  of  his  humanity,  as  part  of  his  orig- 
inal spiritual  endowment,  is  lodged  this  sense  of 
the  reality  of  Virtue,  of  the  permanent  and  universal 
validity  of  its  law.  This  needs  to  be  preserved,  to 
be  cherished,  to  be  educated,  like  any  other  part  or 
power  we  possess.  But  it  is  ours,  by  birthright.  To 
be  born  without  it  were  to  be  divorced  from  the 
Race,  to  be  morally  an  idiot.  And  in  the  native 
possession  of  this,  we  find  the  first  element  of  the 
fitness  of  the  soul  for  attainments  in  Virtue.  This 
sense  of  its  authority,  this  faculty  for  intuitively 
recognizing  its   claims,  is   prophetic  of  much. 

II.  But  this  is  not  alone,  in  that  living  and  per- 
sonal complex  of  powers  which  we  name  the  Soul. 
With  this  innate  Moral  Sense,  which  recognizes 
intuitively  the  validity  of  Hight,  and  the  permanence 
and  supremacy  of  its  spiritual  law,  is  combined  the 
feculty  of  Analysis,  and  Moral  Judgment  ;  the  power, 
that  is,  of  discerning  to  what  the  law  of  Righteousness 
applies,  and  of  learning  from  instruction,  if  not  of  dis- 
covering hy  our  own  induction,  its  total  and  exact  extent. 

The  mental  faculties,  which  have  previously  been 
discussed,  come  in  here  to  supplement  the  moral 
sensibiHty,  supplying  what  it  needs  for  the  develope- 
ment  of  general  ethical  principles,  and  the  construc- 
tion of  an  adequate  rule  of  life.  The  Moral  Sense, 
like    the    senses    which    are    physical,   perceives    the 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  133 

phenomenal,  the  palpahle  and  outstanding.  It  sees 
the  evident  violations  of  equity;  the  undeniable  acts 
of  heroic  goodness.  It  remains  for  the  judgment, 
the  analyzing  and  constructive  power  in  the  soul, 
which  every  where  builds  up  its  systems  of  Science, 
to  evolve  from  the  impressions  thus  immediately  re- 
ceived, its  more  refined  rules ;  and  it  is  left  for  the 
Keason,  which  apprehends  truth  by  direct  intuition, 
to  discern  the  great  plan  in  which  aU  particular 
statutes  are  embraced ;  the  universal  and  permanent 
Law,  whose  one  great  ordinance  they  variously  ex- 
press. And  these  are  competent  to  the  office.  They 
make  the  perfect  Law  of  Virtue  attainable  by  the 
soul. 

Thus  Murder,  for  example,  the  unprovoked  destruc- 
tion of  another's  life  in  malice,  or  for  gain:  this  has 
never  been  held  innocent  among  any  people.  Some 
mode  of  retribution  has  always  been  provided,  where 
this  has  appeared;  and  the  murderer  himself,  except 
in  the  cases  where  long  use  has  hardened  him,  has 
shrunk  conscience-smitten  from  the  scene  of  his  crime. 
*  The  word  Judgment,'  has  always  '•  bred  a  kind  of  Re- 
morse in  him,'  as  in  the  murderer  of  Clarence ;  the 
blood  has  clung  to  his  conscious  hands ;  and  the  spec- 
tre of  his  victim  has  seemed  to  haunt  his  after  path. 
The  same  is  true  of  Treachery  :  the  intentional  vio- 
lation of  a  private  or  public  trust,  in  an  impulse  of 


m 


134  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

greed,  or  of  irritated  passion.  No  varnish  of  success 
has  ever  been  able  to  hide  from  men  s  minds  the  real 
badness  of  this  action.  The  traitor  himself  has  car- 
ried a  perpetual  unrest  within  him;  and  History,  amid 
whose  liquid  medium  all  actions  and  characters  tend 
to  take  their  position,  as  the  wrecks  in  the  ocean 
gravitate  to  an  equipoise,  has  opened  for  him  her  low- 
est deep.  So,  Lying,  Robbery,  Adultery,  Slander,  are 
always  recognized,  unless  in  the  lowest  and  most 
loathsome  community,  and  even  there,  except  at  in- 
tervals or  in  particular  cases,  as  wrong  and  criminal ; 
violations  of  the  Law  which  surrounds  every  person. 
If  this  recognition  is  not  direct,  it  is  incidental,  and 
so  sometimes  the  more  emphatic.  In  certain  parts  of 
Hindostan,  for  example,  it  is  said  there  is  a  festival 
recurring  once  a  year,  the  theory  of  which  is  that 
there  this  Law  which  the  Gods  have  enjoined  is  loosed 
from  the  people,  and  that  every  man,  for  the  one 
'  devil's-day,  may  do  what  he  will.  And  there  the 
vices  which  I  have  named,  swarm  out  at  once  to 
monstrous  exhibition;  with  others  besides,  too  hideous 
and  strange  to  be  objects  of  thought.  It  is,  assur- 
edly, a  frightful  fact;  showing  how  near  that  society 
stands  at  every  moment  to  the  bloodiest  dissolution. 
And  yet  it  is  a  fact  most  suggestive  and  memorable, 
because  it  demonstrates  the  reality  and  the  depth  of 
the  sense  of  the  wickedness  inhering  in  such  actions, 


4^ 

m 

ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  135 

even  among  the  most  debased.  It  shows,  as  in  a 
panorama  of  human  nature,  with  all  its  secrets  for 
once  unveiled,  how  instant  is  the  impression  of  the 
evilness  of  such  deeds;  of  their  direct  contrariety  to 
the  Law  invisible,  which  men  ought  to  obey.  No 
man  is  without  this.  Even  long  continued  habits  of 
vice  cannot  altogether  expel  it  from  his  soul. 

But  now  the  moment  this  is  admitted,  there  follows 
by  necessary  sequence  the  admission  of  the  power  of 
the  soul  to  discern  a  higher  and  more  complete  rule, 
than  that  which  forbids  such  exaggerated  crimes.  For 
the  Judgment  takes  the  instance  of  murder,  for  ex- 
ample, and  examining  that  as  it  examines  the  crystal, 
the  plant  or  the  animal,  in  the  outward  creation,  it 
instantly  discovers  that  the  knife  or  the  axe  which 
inflicted  the  blow  was  not  to  blame  for  the  death  which 
followed ;  nor  was  the  hand,  or  the  arm,  which  held 
this,  considered  as  a  fabric  of  muscle  and  of  bone, 
coursed  by  the  veins  and  covered  by  the  flesh.  It 
was  the  Will,  which  lay  behind  these,  which  gave  to 
them  their  deadly  onset.  It  is  to  that,  beneath  all 
instruments,  within  all  incidents,  that  the  crime  is  to 
be  traced.  The  Will,  obeying  passion  rather  than  love, 
yielding  to  malice  or  to  avaricious  lust,  and  strik- 
ing the  blow  in  the  impulse  of  that — there  stands  the 
Assassin !  And  to  get  at  this  riotous  Will  and  punish 
it,  not  at  aU  to  wreak  vengeance  on  the  muscle  or  the 


136  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

flesh,  men  cut  off  the  head,  or  lift  the  frame  upon  the 
gibbet.  To  the  voluntary  action  of  the  soul  within, 
then,  and  not  simply  to  the  muscular  motion  of  the 
arm  exhibiting  this,  extends  the  searching  law  of 
Virtue.  To  the  inward  state  of  feeling,  affection,  upon 
which  that  voluntary  action  is  conditioned,  and  by 
which  it  is  determined,  applies  its  just  and  imperative 
rule.  This  cannot  but  be  seen  the  moment  man  earn- 
estly, and  with  serious  attention,  investigates  an  act 
declared  by  the  moral  sense  to  be  criminal  and  con- 
demned. The  Law  which  makes  that  action  wicked, 
as  distinguished  from  the  mechanical  violence  of  storms, 
from  the  devastations  of  fire,  or  the  fall  of  an  aerolite, 
of  necessity  declares  the  criminality  to  lodge,  not  in 
any  contraction  or  play  of  the  muscles,  but  in  the 
passion  of  the  heart,  and  the  wrong  and  iniquitous 
adtion  of  the  Will. 

And  so  as  we  follow  this  analysis  still  further,  em- 
ploying our  faculty  of  abstraction  and  construction 
here  as  upon  nature,  yet  taking  counsel  at  every  step 
of  that  moral  sensibility  which  grows  ever  more  refined 
as  well  as  more  controlling  as  it  is  oftener  consulted, 
and  especially  applying  the  intuitive  Reason  which 
aflSrms  the  Invisible  as  superior  to  the  phenomenal, 
involving  all  particulars  in  a  universal  principle,  and 
supplying  the  ground  and  the  verity  of  experience — as 
we  thus  go  forward,  and  thus  ascend  upward,  from  the 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  137 

action  to  th«  motive,  from  the  motive  which  is  wrong 
to  its  contrary  which  is  right,  from  the  particular  motive 
of  the  hour  or  the  occasion  to  the  general  motive- 
state  in  which  that  is  grounded,  the  state  which 
should  properly  regulate  our  life — ^we  come,  and  we 
must  come,  at  the  end  of  our  process,  to  disinterested 
AND  PERFECT  iDYE,  as  the  ultimate  and  authoritative  Law 
of  Virtue ;  a  Love  to  every  being,  according  to  his 
perceived  desert,  and  according  to  our  relations  to  him. 
This  Love  should  be  intelligent,  personal,  per- 
manent. It  should  fill  and  pervade  our  total  life; 
controlling  man,  with  immediate  and  spontaneous  force, 
in  each  of  the  four  distinct  relations  which  he  sustains ; 
toward  God ;  toward  men ;  towards  animals  and  things, 
in  the  material  creation;  and  finally  towards  himself. 
He  should  exercise  tozva?^ds  every  related  and  hnovm  heing 
benevolent  affection.  This  is  the  ultimate  philosophical 
formula  for  complete  Goodness.  It  excludes  nothing 
that  is  graceful  in  character,  or  generous  in  action,  but 
embraces  all  such  details,  and  interprets  them  by  its 
principle.  It  allows  of  nothing  that  is  selfish  or  un- 
chaste, but  supplants  all  such  by  its  perfect  plan. 
When  realized  by  any  one,  his  character  becomes 
spotless.  He  achieves  a  thorough  and  symmetrical 
excellence.  He  becomes  a  fit  object  for  world-wide 
reverence.  In  this  rule,  the  Judgment  is  perfectly 
satisfied;    for  every  detail  of  specific  morality  is  har- 


138 

monized  and  founded  in  its  spiritual  unity.  Science, 
indeed,  distinctly  accepts  and  celebrates  this  Law  as 
kindred  in  its  domain  with  that  rule  of  physical 
attraction  in  matter,  which  keeps  each  star  secure 
upon  its  centre,  peaceful  upon  its  route,  because  each 
particle  is  attracted  to  all  others  in  proportion  to  their 
mass  and  to  its  nearness  to  them.  The  law  of  Virtue, 
itself  invisible,  seems  almost  reflected  from  this  wise 
and  serene  ordination  of  nature,  as  the  sunshine  gleams 
back  from  a  golden  surface.  In  this  rule  of  right- 
eousness the  Reason  can  rest;  for  its  most  clear  and 
sublime  intuitions  can  discern  nothing  higher.  .  The 
Moral  Sense  is  satisfied  by  it;  for  that  discovers  no 
righteous  act,  no  deed  of  shame,  it  takes  on  all  its 
capacious  sensibility  no  single  impression,  which  may 
not  be  explained  and  be  classified  by  this  rule.  All 
the  faculties  of  the  soul  which  are  concerned  with  this 
theme,  point  instantly  toward  this  rule  as  the  summit 
of  their  discoveries,  and  having  attained  it  are  at  rest 
in  its  perfection.  They  cannot  rest,  outside  of  or 
beneath  it.  And  Ethics  and  E-eligion,  the  moral  sys- 
tems of  man  in  their  highest  attainment,  the  system 
of  God  in  its  constant  requirement,  are  at  one  in 
exhibiting  and  enforcing  this  Rule.  The  Soul  has  by 
birthright  all  the  faculties  which  are  necessary  in  or- 
der to  attain  it. 

And  when  this  absolute  Law  of  Virtue  is  thus  ascer- 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  139 

tained  and  affirmed  by  the  soul,  the  application  of  its 
principles  to  the  details  of  life  is  a  matter  simply  for 
the  practical  judgment,  assisted  and  inspired  by  the 
conscientious  instinct.  That  one  act  is  right  and 
another  act  is  wrong,  that  one  course  is  obligatory  and 
another  is  forbidden,  will  be  evident  without  diffi- 
culty to  the  man  who  perceives,  and  who  seeks  with 
sincere  endeavor  to  apply,  this  perfect  and  supreme 
formative  rule.  Each  detail  of  conduct  becomes  located 
by  it,  and  clearly  interpreted.  As  the  sun  over  matter, 
it  casts  light  over  life;  or,  rather,  as  he  who  takes  for 
his  axiom  the  centrality  of  the  sun  in  our  planetary 
system,  and  its  relative  stability,  can  calculate  from 
that  the  orbit,  the  mass,  and  the  relation  to  the  sun 
of  every  star  that  circulates  around  it,  so  he  who  has 
ftiUy  accepted  this  rule  of  Benevolent  Love  as  the 
essence  of  Virtue,  can  calculate  with  easy  and  accu- 
rate analysis  the  nature,  the  extent,  and  the  relative 
importance,  of  all  particular  and  subordinate  duties. 
Applying  his  mind  with  an  unbiassed  purpose  to  this 
investigation,  he  will  readily  ascertain  what  relations, 
what  actions,  are  inconsistent  with  virtue,  and  what  it 
permits  or  what  it  enjoins.  Each  act  will  show  its 
quality  to  him,  as  the  insect  shows  its  structure  to  the 
practised  entomologist.  It  will  seem  morally  deformed, 
or  morally  appropriate,  as  the  incorrect  outline,  or  the 
perfect  color,  to  the  eye  of  the  artist. 


140  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

,  A  complete  system  of  practical  Ethics,  to  state  it 
in  a  word,  is  within  the  compass  of  the  powers  of 
the  soul.  If  men  do  not  attain  that,  it  is  because 
they  do  not  use  the  faculties  they  possess ;  because, 
with  the  fearful  proclivity  to  indulgence  which  is 
shown  in  their  action,  they  prefer  to  obey  the  impulse 
of  the  moment,  instead  of  the  rational  and  conscien- 
tious conviction.  Without  themselves  being  always 
aware  of  it,  they  decline  to  form  systems  so  pure  and 
complete  as  continually  to  rebuke  them.  They  may 
form  such  if  they  will.  Revelation  is  made  neces- 
sary, so  far  as  it  instructs  us  in  daily  conduct,  by 
a  wrong  use  of  man's  powers ;  not  at  all  by  an  orig- 
inal defect  in  those  powers.  It  comes  to  enlighten, 
and  to  change  our  moral  state ;  not  at  all  to  incor- 
porate in  the  frame  of  our  faculties  one  unpossessed 
before.  And  no  man,  it  seems  to  me,  who  atten- 
tively considers  this,  can  help  being  satisfied  that 
whatever  have  been  the  errors  of  the  Past',  and  how 
many  soever  its  moral  delusions,  the  perfect  and  com- 
prehensive law  of  Virtue,  as  applied  to  daily  life,  is 
attainable  with  the  powers  which  God  implants  in  the 
soul.  Confucius  announced  the  essence  of  it  in  China, 
before  Christ  had  published  to  men  the  Golden  Hule. 
Plato  and  Seneca  had  clear  apprehensions  of  its 
main  features.  And  many  moralists  have  seized 
strongly,    and   applied  justly,   the    chief  requirements 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  141 

which  it  lays  upon  man.  If  half  the  patient  and 
assiduous  thought  had  been  given  to  this  which  has 
been  given  to  the  science  of  matter  among  men, 
the  science  of  morals  would  have  been  as  firmly- 
founded,  as  fairly  reared,  as  solidly  compacted,  as 
clearly  enlightened,  as  that  which  interprets  the  ma- 
terial heavens,  or  arranges  and  reconciles  the  so  va- 
rious phenomena  in  the  physical  world. — The  sense 
of  the  majesty  and  authority  of  Virtue  is  innate  in 
the  heart.  Every  soul  has  the  faculties  for  attaining 
and  perceiving  its  perfect  Law. 

III.    But   God  has   further,  in  the   third   place,  en- 
dowed  us  with   A   NATIVE    SENSIBILITY  TO  THE   MoTIVES  TO 

Virtue  ;  with  the  power  of  apprehending,  and  the  desire 
of  possessing,  those  spiritual  goods  ivhich  only  Virtue  can 
bring  us.  And  so  He  presses  the  soul  toward  that,  by 
an  impulse  lodged  at  the  centre  of  its  being;  and  He 
never  lets  it  rest  until  it  gains  it.  This  is  important 
to  be  observed  and  pondered  in  this  connection. 

An  outward  motive  to  Virtue  is  impossible.  In 
seeking  to  encourage  and  confirm  our  obedience,  it  in 
fact  would  destroy  that,  and  make  it  impossible.  For 
disinterested  Love,  as  has  already  been  shown,  is  the 
high  rule  of  Virtue ;  and  to  be  disinterested  for  the 
sake  of  our  profit,  benevolently  to  love  others  in  or- 
der to  gain  by  it,  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  If 
a  man  sacrifices  one  object,  to  gain  another  which  to 


142  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

him  is  a  greater, — ^if  he  sacrifices  money,  to  gain  in- 
fluence over  men,  or  sacrifices  his  circumstances  of 
personal  comfort,  to  gain  celebrity  and  a  posthumous 
renown — then  we  recognize  in  him  a  more  refined 
self-seeking,  a  more  intellectual  and  far-sighted  ambi- 
tion, but  not  a  whit  more  of  essential  virtuousness 
than  if  he  had  followed  the  more  customary  path.  He 
has  sought  one  end  of  human  desire,  in  preference  to 
another  :  that  is  all  we  can  say  of  him. .  And  we 
never  think  of  making  him  an  example,  or  of  revering 
him  as  benevolent.  We  cannot  buy  self-sacrifice  by 
rewards.  It  must  be  inherently  superior  to  rewards, 
or  it  can  not  be  real.  The  man  who  speaks  truth 
for  the  sake  of  advantage,  loves  not  the  truth,  but 
the  advantage ;  and  in  this  is  no  Virtue.  The  gen- 
uine honesty  is  revealed  when  it  stands  unshaken  by 
allurement,  and  unchanged  by  losses.  The  honesty 
which  is  practised  because  it  is  profitable,  as  a 
means  to  a  good,  and  not  itself  the  highest  good, 
rings  hollow  to  our  touch.  Humility,  charity,  filial 
affection,  pious  patience  under  sorrow,  that  large  hu- 
manity which  counts  no  interest  of  the  State  or  of 
the  Race  an  alien  to  its  affection,  or  undeserving  its 
effort, — the  moment  we  conceive  of  these  virtues  as 
practised,  for  an  outward  emolument,  that  moment 
we  conceive  of  them  as  intrinsically  unreal.  The 
man  becomes   a   hypocrite,   the   instant    his  action  is 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  143 

thus  properly  described.  The  outward  gloss  and 
glimmer  of  his  character  cease  to  deceive  us.  We  see 
that  his  goodness  is  apparent,  not  hearty ;  simulated, 
not  genuine.  For  Virtue  is  always  superior  to  such 
inducements.  It  cannot  be  purchased,  and  it  cannot 
be  strengthened,  by  outward  rewards. 

And  yet  there  are  motives  to  the  culture  of  Virtue 
which  are  appropriate,  and  sufficient;  in  yielding  to 
which  no  man  loses  the  intimate  righteousness  of  his 
character,  but  by  which  his  Virtue  may  first  be  in- 
spired, and  afterward  be  fortified.  And  these  lie  near 
to  every  soul.  Whether  consciously  or  not,  it  feels 
always  their  pressure  reaching  forth  to  affect  it.  It  is 
so  formed  of  God — ^and  this  shows  His  wisdom,  and 
His  infinite  goodness — that  it  cannot  escape  the  recog- 
nition of  them.  They  environ  and  invest  its  first 
moral  actions. 

We  desire,  constitutionally,  by  a  law  of  our  nature, 
satisfaction  and  peace  ;  a  sense  of  harmony  in  ourselves, 
and  toward  others ;  a  tranquil  freedom  from  mental 
alarms.  Without  this,  all  outward  possessions  are  poor. 
The  marble  halls  of  Nero's  palace,  inclosing  beneath 
their  polished  roofs,  within  their  costly  and  tesselated 
walls,  majestic  trees,  the  rarest  flowers,  fountains  and 
gardens,  theatres  and  galleries  ;  crowded  with  furniture 
of  ivory  and  of  pearl,  with  exquisite  statuary  making 
the  clear  Italian  air  almost  palpitate  with  delight,  with 


144  '    THE     HUMAN     SOUL^. 

sumptuous  or  delicate  paintings  in  golden  frames 
intoxicating  the  sense ;  these  halls,  pervaded  by  con- 
stant music  breathing  witchingly  forth  from  unseen 
bowers,  and  filled  with  the  breath  of  tropical  per- 
fumes, become  a  mere  prison,  of  decorated  gloom, 
to  the  mind  internally  harassed  and  unrestful.  The 
eye  refuses  to  be  gratified  with  colors,  while  spir- 
itual darkness  shadows  its  orb.  The  sense  cannot 
enjoy  rare  melodies,  while  the  soul  is  struggling  with 
a  secret  self-reproach.  We  crave  an  inward  rest  and 
peace,  as  the  prime  condition  of  all  true  enjoyment. 
Unless  we  have  this,  our  seeming  motions  and  pauses 
of  pleasure  are  but  mimicry  of  real  happiness. 

But  the  slightest  experience  of  life  demonstrates  that 
an  inward  unrest  is  inseparable  from  vice.  We  can  only 
attain  the  peace  which  we  seek  through  obedience  to 
Virtue.  A  sense  of  want,  and  yet  of  satiety — of  satiety 
with  what  the  outward  affords,  of  the  want  of  something 
higher — a  sense  of  impurity,  a  consciousness  of  failing 
to  realize  our  true  end,  occasional  flashes  of  remorseful 
conviction  or  of  anxious  expectation,  a  dark  recogni- 
tion of  isolation,  solitariness,  and  of  exposedness  through 
guilt;  these  come,  inevitably,  with  the  practice  of 
wrong.  No  man  can  so  strip  himself  of  his  moral  con- 
stitution as  to  put  them  away  from  him.  In  the  most 
'successful'  criminals,  as  the  world  has  styled  them, 
they  sometimes   have   bjeen  most  fearfully   exhibited. 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  145 

And  equally,  on  the  other  hand,  repose  of  conscience, 
a  sense  of  moral  elevation  and  advancement,  a  cheerful 
apprehension  of  the  favor  of  pure  beings,  an  exulting 
assurance  of  the  Divine  complacency  resting  upon  us, 
a  sense  of  firmness,  security,  safeness,  whatever  may 
betide,  a  conviction  of  inward  preparation  for  the  Fu- 
ture— these  come  as  inseparably  with  the  obedience  of 
Virtue.  They  cannot  be  divorced  from  it,  by  the  axe 
of  the  executioner,  or  the  fires  of  the  stake.  For  they 
are  not  set  artificially  upon  it,  by  mechanical  addition, 
as  the  statue  upon  the  pedestal ;  they  are  folded  within 
it,  as  the  perfume  in  the  petals,  or  the  melody  in 
the  tone.  And  they  never,  therefore,  by  any  means, 
can  be  dissociated  from  it. 

These  constitute  the  fit  motives,  appropriate  and 
powerful,  to  lead  unto  virtue,  and  to  stimulate  to  its 
practice.  The  man  who  accepts  them  does  not  thereby 
become  the  less  virtuous.  His  character  is  only  con- 
firmed by  their  influence,  and  his  action  ennobled. 
The  man  who  accepts  and  yields  himself  to  them, 
becomes  the  patriot,  the  philanthropist,  the  martyr  of 
truth ;  whom  the  world  could  not  buy,  '  of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy.' 

It  is  very  significant,  then,  and  important  to  be 
remembered,  when  we  ponder  the  goodness,  the  wis- 
dom, and  the  power  of  God,  as  exhibited  in  adapt- 
ing the  soul  for   Virtue — that  this  soul  is  so   formed 

10 


146  THE     HUMAN     SOUL,*" 

that  these  motives  which  alone  in  the  nature  of 
things  can  be  brought  to  aid  Virtue,  are  developed 
and  declared  to  it  at  the  moment  when  its  volun- 
tary action  commences.  The  presentation  of  them  is 
not  left  to  be  contingent,  dependent  upon  circum- 
stances, or  on  the  voluntary  effort  of  others.  It  is 
made  inevitable ;  is  certified  and  secured,  by  the  won- 
drous frame  of  the  spirit  itself.  That  cannot  once 
do  wrong,  without  feeling  a  pain  like  the  pressure  of 
God's  finger,  arresting  its  course,  and  directing  it 
backward.  It  cannot  once  do  right,  without  feeling 
an  impulse,  again  as  from  Him,  propeUing  it  forward. 
As  the  finger  feels  the  smart  when  it  touches  the 
flame  that  stands  airily  quivering  in  its  golden  in- 
vitation, so  the  will  which  first  touches  a  Lie  or  a 
Lust  is  conscious  of  a  pang.  Not  outward  in  the 
Word,  but  inward  in  its  life,  is  this  warning  against 
vice.  When  afterwards  it  reads  and  meditates  the 
Word,  it  finds  symbols  interpreted,  precepts  enforced, 
admonitions  illumined,  by  this  its  prior  inward  expe- 
rience. And  when  it  reads  History,  it  sees  therein 
only  what  it  had  seen  before  in  its  consciousness,  that 
pain  and  unrest  are  inseparable  from  wrong;  that 
the  solid  mental  good,  the  exquisite  satisfaction  and 
the  untroubled  peace,  the  divine  assimilation,  the  far- 
reaching  hope,  for  which  the  soul  instinctively  pines, 
as   more   precious   than  wealth   and    more    lofty   than 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  147 

thrones,  are  only  to  be  realized  through  a  virtuous 
obedience ! 

The  motives  to  this, — as  real  as  its  life,  as  great 
as  its  capacity,  and,  afterwards  it  finds,  as  lasting  as 
its  being, — are  therefore  brought  before  it  at  the 
outset  of  its  experience.  In  the  beautiful  wisdom 
and  mystery  of  its  constitution,  they  are  made  to 
press  against  it,  with  silent  certainty,  so  soon  as  its 
moral  activity  commences. 

rV.  Nor  is  this  alone  true.  It  is  true  also,  fur- 
ther, that  God  in  his  structure  of  the  Human  Soul 
has  founded  in  it  certain  positive  Aptitudes  for  Affec- 
tion, which  make  Virtue  in  some  particulars  more 
easy  than  the  opposite,  and  compel  us  as  we  say  to 
'go  against  nature'  in  refusing  its  rule.  This  also  is 
evident,  and  is  very  important. 

The  filial  afiections  are  helpers  to  all  Virtue.  So 
are  the  parental  and  the  conjugal  affections ;  the  affec- 
tion of  gratitude,  when  favors  have  been  bestowed ; 
the  affection  of  reverence,  toward  an  eminent  and 
pure  character;  the  affection  of  patriotism,  toward 
our  home  and  our  land.  The  filial  affections,  accord- 
ing to  the  Chinese  moraKst  and  sage  to  whom  I 
have  before  referred,  are  the  quick  and  active  germ 
of  aU  others.  And  all  these  are  rooted,  directly  and 
natively,  among  the  elements  of  our  being.  They 
spring  up   spontaneously,  their    conditions    being  pre- 


148 

sented,  with  the  free  and  unbiassed  developement  of 
our  powers.  They  grow  if  let  alone.  The  struggle 
must  rather  be  to  ehminate  than  to  evolve  them. 
And  though  they  require  education  and  training  to 
unfold  them  aright^  and  to  bring  them  to  perfection, 
they  arise  almost  as  readily  in  the  sensitive  and  sane 
soul,  which  temptation  has  not  drugged,  which  pas- 
sion has  not  blighted,  as  the  climbing  tendrils  of  the 
clematis,  or  the  purple  clusters  of  the  wistaria  wav- 
ing their  loyal  tribute  on  the  air,  from  seeds  im- 
planted in  fruitful  soil.  We  say  of  the  man  who 
does  not  show  these,  not,  'He  is  no  Morahst,'  or 
'  He  is  no  Christian ;'  but,  '  He  is  no  Man !'  He  wants 
an  inward  assimilation  to  his  race.  He  is  far  more 
thoroughly  and  widely  divorced  from  it,  by  the  ruin  he 
has  brought  on  these  fine  instincts,  than  he  could  be 
by  any  mutilation  of  members,  by  any  political  or  so- 
cial disabilities,  or  even  by  ignorance.  Revelation  as- 
sists, refines,  and  nurtures,  these  various  affections. 
But  it  is  not  requisite  to  implant  or  produce  them,  and 
they  often  have  flourished  where  it  was  not  known. 

And  though  these  are  not  in  themselves  chief  vir- 
tues, they  are,  in  their  proper  place  and  relations, 
particular  expressions  of  the  one  supreme  law  which 
describes  human  Goodness;  and  the  history  of  the 
race,  as  well  as  the  experience  of  individuals  and 
of  families,   declares  how  intimate  are   their  relations 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  149 

to  all  others.  The  filial  affection  which  holds  up  a 
tottering  Father  on  its  arms,  or  which  wears  the  name 
of  a  Mother  departed  as  an  amulet  against  vice,  it 
does  not  of  necessity  lead  up  to  or  involve  true 
piety  toward  God ;  hut  when  the  soul,  in  which  this 
lives,  has  been  fully  enlightened  with  the  clear  exhi- 
bition of  His  character  and  glory,  of  His  more  than 
paternal  kindness  and  watchfulness,  of  the  infinite 
tenderness  and  fulness  of  ffis  love,  this  opens  an 
easy  way  to  piety,  and  becomes  a  natural  auxiliary 
to  that.  The  gratitude  and  reverence  which  are  felt 
toward  a  friend,  may  terminate  there,  and  dispose  to 
notliing  higher;  but  they  may  become  vastly  exalted 
and  intensified,  as  experienced  toward  God,  until  they 
lift  the  soul  in  which  they  dwell  to  a  consummate 
virtue.  And  the  one  self-denial,  in  the  impulse  of 
affection,  which  leads  to  the  3delding  of  a  coveted  ad- 
vantage for  the  good  of  another,  may  unfold  to  a 
habit  of  continuous  self-sacrifice,  to  which  heroisms 
shall  be  familiar,  and  privations  delights.  So,  step  by 
step,  the  ideal  of  personal  excellence  may  be  realized, 
if  we  yield  to  these  impulses  which  are  bedded  in  our 
being;  and  the  soul  which  cannot  find  rest  else- 
where, shall  find  and  secure  it  in  a  perfected  Vir- 
tue. God  not  only  has  surrounded  us  with  the 
motives  to  that,  and  has  placed  those  motives  prox- 
imate to  our  consciousness,  but  He  has  opened  an  easy 


150 

path,  through  these  delicate  and  permanent  instincts 
of  the  soul,  for  its  progress  to  the  attainment  of 
an  absolute  rectitude. 

y.  It  only  remains  to  be  remarked,  then,  in  the  fifth 
place,  in  completing  the  discussion,  that  while  the  soul 
possesses  this  sense,  innate  and  central,  of  the  reality 
of  Virtue  and  the  authority  of  its  law,  and  while  it 
has  the  power  of  unfolding  or  ascertaining  the  rule  of 
righteousness  in  its  principle  and  in  its  details,  and 
while  it  is  so  formed  that  the  motives  to  virtue  and  the 
dissuasives  from  vice  lie  close  to  its  being,  and  press 
against  its  consciousness  the  moment  its  moral  activity 
begins,  and  that  instincts  to  particular  virtues  are 
strong  in  it — ^it  is  also  endowed  with  the  faculty  of 
Free  Will  :  with  the  power,  that  is,  of  originating  and 
determining  its  oivn  moral  action  ;  of  yielding  to  motives, 
or  refusing  to  yield  to  them ;  of  choosing  one  end  and 
working  for  that,  or  choosing  another,  and  making 
all  else  subordinate  to  this.  By  this  it  is  fitted  consti- 
tutionally, always,  ibr  taking  Virtue  as  its  good,  and 
the  law  of  Righteousness  as  its  supreme  rule.  And 
in  this  God's  wisdom  and  power  in  framing  it,  with  fit- 
nesses for  Virtue,  become  finally  manifest. 

All  Virtue  must  be  free,  a  matter  of  personal  election 
and  accomplishment,  not  imposed  by  another,  in  order 
to  be  real.  For  it  essentially  consists,  as  I  said  at  the 
outset,  in  the  personal  acceptance,  by  him  who  is  its 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  151 

subject,  of  that  moral  Law  which  is  enjoined  by  our 
Creator,  which  is  perfectly  adapted  to  our  powers 
and  our  relations,  but  which  may  be  accepted  or  re- 
jected as  we  please.  It  is  peculiar  to  this  Law,  among 
the  ordinances  of  God,  that  it  asks  our  assent ;  and  then 
only  is  fulfilled  when  we  freely  embrace,  and  persis- 
tently accomplish  it.  A  concreated  virtue  in  the  soul, 
is  therefore  inconceivable.  There  may  be  an  admirable 
symmetry  of  its  powers,  a  perfect  completeness  of 
its  constitutional  fitness  for  the  exercise  of  virtue.  But 
this  in  itself  is  not  personal  virtue ;  any  more  than  the 
color  of  the  ruby  is  goodness,  or  the  radiating  brilliance 
which  is  lodged  in  the  diamond  is  an  element  of  fancy 
and  genius  to  the  stone.  No  exquisite  proportion  and 
equipoise  of  our  faculties,  preparing  us  for  pure  action; 
no  adjustment  of  tastes,  sensibilities,  and  powers,  in- 
clining us  to  do  right ;  is  of  itself  virtuous,  or  can  ever 
be  so  described  except  in  the  extremest  liberty  of 
speech.  The  utmost  that  can  be  done  for  man  to  fit 
him  for  the  practice  and  the  culture  of  virtue,  is  to 
give  him  the  sense  of  its  beauty  and  authority,  to  give 
him  the  knowledge  of  its  righteous  law,  or  the  power 
of  gaining  that,  and  to  make  him  capable  of  directing 
his  own  course;  of  putting  forth  voluntary  and  self- 
determined  operation ;  of  originating  and  of  changing 
his  personal  movement;  so  that  he  may  conform  him- 
self to  righteousness  and  its  rules  if  he  will  to  do  that. 


152  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

or  may  neglect  and  reject  tliem  in  the  exercise  of  the 
same  indefeasible  sovereignty. 

And  this  power,  in  substance,  God  has  given  to  man, 
in  endowing  him  with  that  faculty  which  in  ordinary 
speech  we  describe  as  The  Will.  By  this  he  is  enabled 
to  choose  or  refuse  Right ;  to  devote  himself  to  the 
attainment  and  the  exercise  of  Virtue,  resisting  all 
motives  opposed  to  its  law,  or  to  take  for  himself  a 
course  of  indulgence,  and  pursue  that  regardless  of 
moral  distinctions.  In  this,  the  divine  equipment  of 
the  soul,  with  reference  to  this  good,  is  brought  to 
its  completeness ;  and  the  character  and  the  power  of 
our  Author  are  revealed. 

That  may  possesses  this  native  power  of  originating 
and  directing,  of  choosing  and  of  changing,  his  own 
course  of  action,  our  consciousness  declares,  and  all 
experience  demonstrates.  The  general  sense  of  the 
world  proclaims  it.  Outward  motives  to  action,  as  we 
inaccurately  style  them,  even  those  which  are  nearest 
and  most'  attractive,  cannot  constrain  or  debar  this 
free  movement.  They  are  the  occasions,  the  incentives 
to  our  action ;  they  are  not  its  masters.  They  do  not 
compel  it,  and  they  do  not  forbid  it.  Men  overleap 
them  often,  and  set  them  utterly  at  defiance.  The 
martyr  chooses  the  rack  and  the  cross,  or  the  more 
refined  torture  of  a  life-long  imprisonment,  he  calmly 
fronts    the   flaming   sword   that  plays  back  and  forth 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  153 

across  his  path,  he  steps  into  the  chasm  that  opens 
beneath  him,  a  living  grave  more  terrible  than  the  sepul- 
chre— against  all  enticements  of  luxury  and  of  ease, 
against  entreaties  of  friends,  and  the  pleadings  of  a 
household,  because  duty  persuades  him ;  and  he  pre- 
fers, in  the  exercise  of  his  uncontrolled  sovereignty 
of  will,  to  yield  to  that,  instead  of  the  transient  allure- 
ments that  oppose  it.  The  soldier,  in  a  chivalrous 
attachment  to  his  leader,  or  a  higher  attachment  to 
the  cause  of  his  country,  lays  bare  his  breast  to  the 
rush  of  the  javelin  or  the  blast  of  the  death-bolt,  and 
falls  exulting  to  have  sheathed  in  his  life  that  eager 
stroke  which  was  aimed  at  the  leader,  and  through  him 
at  the  State.  Or,  to  take  a  far  lower,  but  more  fami- 
liar illustration,  the  artist,  the  scholar,  the  student  of 
any  science,  turns  away  from  the  showy  acquisitions 
of  trade,  from  the  prizes  of  power,  preferment  and 
rank — which  most  attract  the  effort  of  men,  and  to 
which  he  acknowledges  strong  impulses  in  himself — 
in  order  to  gratify  that  inner  desire,  for  beauty  and  for 
knowledge,  which  hath  upon  it,  to  his^  purged  eye,  a 
more  divine  charm. ,  Where  other  men  yield  to  an 
outward  motive,  there  he  resists.  What  to  other 
men  is  simply  a  dream  or  a  fantasy,  that  he  accepts 
as  the  mistress  of  his  life.  He  makes  his  own  motive, 
and  freely  yields  to  it. 

The  power  of  the  outward,  therefore,  which  furnishes 


154  THEHUMANSOUL, 

the  conditions  and  the  occasions  of  actions,  does  evi- 
dently not  extend  to  the  limiting  or  destroying  of  the 
freedom  of  the  will.  The  soul  may  harness  its  spirit- 
ual forces  to  physical  pleasure,  and  material  gain ;  but 
inwardly  it  transcends  these.  In  the  royalty  of  its 
nature,  it  may  put  them  all  aside.  And  sometimes, 
when  higher  admonitions  have  inspired  it,  it  does  toss 
them  all  from  it,  or  bend  them  all  under  it,  as  the 
wind  treads  the  shrubbery  under  its  march,  or  catches 
the  spray  from  the  cresting  wave,  and  flings  that  forth 
in  glittering  showers.  Persuasives  to  action,  the  out- 
ward world  furnishes.  But  it  has  no  power,  in  all  its 
range,  to  take  from  the  spirit  its  liberty  of  choice,  or 
to  shut  it  up  with  compulsory  detention  to  any  speci- 
fied course. 

Nor  do  even  the  inclinations,  the  predispositions, 
which  are  natural  to  it  and  habitual  within  it,  restrain 
or  determine,  by  a  necessitating  force,  its  voluntary 
movement.  Against  these,  as  against  their  exterior 
objects,  the  soul  has  power  to  originate  new  action; 
and  often  it  expresses  this,  with  a  singular  energy. 
The  miser,  in  whom  some  taint  of  sordidness  was  ap- 
parent from  his  infancy,  whose  earliest  action  showed 
a  tendency  to  greed,  and  who  for  years  has  been 
painfully  cherishing  this,  until  it  has  become  what 
men  describe  as  his  '  master-passion,'  convinced  by 
the   truth   of  a  better  rule  than  this,   finding   misery 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  155 

and  contempt  his  only  present  reward,  and  seeking  for 
a  higher  and  more  satisfying  good  than  his  coffers 
afford,  turns  back  upon  his  very  inclination,  and 
arrests  it.  By  personal  effort,  because  he  so  elects, 
he  reforms  and  expels  this  destroying  passion;  turn- 
ing the  sand-waste  into  a  garden,  and  making  himself 
philanthropic  and  generous.  The  man  addicted  to 
licentious  indulgence,  or  long  enslaved  by  an  appe- 
tite for  stimulants,  tears  off  the  glowing  links  that 
have  bound  him,  and  reasserts  his  original  freedom.  In 
order  to  gain  this  higher  good,  with  the  personal 
muscle  and  energy  of  the  will,  he  stifles  his  passion, 
and  makes  self-restraint  and  temperance  his  law. 

The  monarch  retires  from  the  throne  to  the  cloister, 
and  rejecting  the  splendid  ambitions  that  have  ruled 
him,  passing  out  from  the  pomp  and  chivalry  of 
courts,  overcoming  the  dispositions  and  the  habits  of 
a  life-time,  devotes  himself  like  Charles  the  Fifth  to 
mechanical  invention,  and  celebrates  in  his  own  per- 
son, with  shroud  of  serge  and  penitential  psalms,  his 
coming  obsequies.  It  is  not  a  force  exterior  to  it- 
self which  compels  the  soul  to  act  thus.  '  Because  I 
choose,'  is  the  answer  it  gives  to  every  interrogatory. 
It  elects  for  itself;  is  controlled  by  no  other;  and 
yields  to  one  motive  in  preference  to  another,  because 
its  own  state  or  its  voluntary  act  has  invested  the 
former  with  a  higher  attraction.     So  it  shows  its  an- 


156  THEHUMANSOUL, 

thority  over  habit  and  inclination,  as  well  as  over 
outward  incentives  to  action.  It  can  change,  by  ap- 
propriate efforts  and  means,  its  own  dispositions;  and 
not  even  the  inclinations  which  it  brings  from  its 
birth,  can  master  or  arrest  the  supremacy  of  its  Will. 
And  God  interposes  no  barrier  to  this,  by  His 
sovereign  decree.  He  makes  us  personal  in  our  pri- 
mary constitution.  He  leaves  us  personal  in  our 
subsequent  action.  And  while  his  plans — it  is  the 
mystery  of  Omniscience  !  it  is  the  problem  insoluble 
of  His  eternal  supremacy ! — ^invest  our  own,  and 
even  involve  them,  and  are  what  they  are  because  it 
is  foreseen  that  ours  will  be  what  they  afterward 
prove  to  be,  the  latter  are  left  as  free  and  untram- 
meled  as  if  there  were  no  such  Being  above  us  ;  no 
all-including  and  perfect  purposes,  outrunning  ours, 
and  carrying  them  forward.  So  every  day's  experi- 
ence demonstrates.  So  human  law  and  government 
imply.  We  know  that  we  are  free  in  crossing  yon- 
der threshold,  though  every  step  as  it  strikes  upon 
the  floor  completes  a  motion  foreseen  of  God  before 
our  birth.  We  know  that  we  are  free,  in  entering 
a  profession,  in  choosing  a  friend,  in  yielding  to  a 
motive,  in  resisting  an  appeal,  as  free  as  if  our  soul 
at  first  had  planned  the  creation  and  locked  its 
wondrous  energies  together,  though  the  rhythm  and 
the  order  of  our   own  life  and  of  others,  of  the  his- 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  157 

tory  of  the  world,  show  one  great  Plan  sweeping  on- 
ward from  the  Eternities,  preconceiving  all  results, 
never  failing  to  secure  them. 

Wherever  the  Infinite  touches  the  finite,  there,  of 
necessity,  to  our  bounded  minds,  mystery  begins. 
'  Dark,  with  excess  of  bright'  God's  glory  is,  at  every 
point  where  man  discerns  it.  But  the  free  and  un- 
controlled operation  of  the  Will,  in  selecting  and  de- 
termining its  own  course  of  action,  in  originating 
its  movement  and  setting  the  limits  to  it,  is  an 
axiom  in  morals,  in  politics,  and  in  practice;  and 
the  utmost  conviction  of  the  sovereignty  of  God's 
plan  neither  militates  against  this,  nor  avails  for  a 
moment  in  any  man  to  overbear  it. — The  soul  is  free, 
as  against  outward  '  motives,'  to  choose  between 
them,  to  disregard  one  and  take  up  another,  to 
make  the  most  slight  and  insignificant  its  own,  in 
preference  to  that  which  is  splendid  and  high.  It 
is  free,  as  against  its  own  innate  tendencies,  or  its 
cherished  inclinations,  to  arrest  dnd  override  them, 
and  put  others  in  the  place  of  them.  It  is  free,  I 
will  not  say  as  against  God's  plan,  but  because  of 
that  plan,  by  virtue  of  its  existence,  to  act  with 
as  truly  a  self-chosen  movement  as  if  God's  pur- 
pose concerned  no  being  nearer  us  than  the  sun, 
or  lower  than  the  angels.  It  is  free  to  obey  the 
Law  of  Virtue.     It  is   free  to  take  indulgence  as  its 


158  THEHUMANSOUL, 

good.  Each  one  of  us  to-night  is  free  and  self- 
guided  ;  and  we  are  responsible  for  more  than  the 
plant  is,  for  more  than  the  star  is,  because  we  have 
this  final  freedom — the  fragrant  fruitage  of  all  our 
powers;  the  very  crown  of  our  being! 

In  this  is  completed  the  endowment  of  the  Soul 
as  related  to  Virtue.  It  has  the  innate  sense  of  its 
reahty,  and  of  the  majesty  of  its  law.  It  has  the 
power  of  ascertaining  that  law,  and  of  applying  it  to 
life,  to  interpret  the  details  of  each  hour's  action. 
The  motives  that  conspire  to  prompt  it  to  virtue,  lie 
near  its  consciousness,  and  make  themselves  felt  by 
it  when  action  commences.  It  has  certain  specific 
and  permanent  aptitudes  for  the  virtues  which  concern 
social  life  and  relations,  implanted  within  it.  It  has 
the  power,  against  all  outward  incitements  or  oppo- 
sitions, against  all  inward  inclinations  and  tendencies, 
to  select  its  own  course,  to  arrange  or  to  change  its 
own  forms  of  action.  It  has  personal  liberty,  that 
finite  omnipotence  f  the  liberty  of  decision,  and  of 
moral  operation;  the  liberty  of  self-government.  And 
by  these  comprehensive  and  interlocked  powers,  the 
soul  becomes  capable,  intrinsically,  of  Virtue ;  able  to 
understand  it ;  able  to  embrace  it ;  able  to  realize 
this  good  supreme,  which  all  the  wealth  of  the  world 
cannot    rival,     which    no    intellectual    accomplishment 


ENDOWED     FOR    VIRTUE.  159 

equals.  It  is  full-formed  for  this;  with  each  faculty 
fit;  with  each  power  in  its  place. 

Why,  then,  does  it  not  realize  it?  How  comes  it 
that  so  few  men,  outside  of  the  sweep  of  Divine  Rev- 
elation, have  ever  desired  or  tried  to  be  virtuous  ? 
that  so  few,  comparatively,  within  that  circle,  have 
attained  this  good  ?  The  question  confronts  us,  and 
challenges  an  answer.  The  answer  is  as  plain  as  the 
thunderous  storm-cloud,  brooding  in  the  air.  It  is, 
that  men  do  not  use  the  powers  which  they  possess; 
that  being  born  amid  circumstances  which  tempt  to 
indulgence,  instead  of  inspiring  to  an  austere  virtue, 
they  yield  to  these  influences,  and  freely  go  astray ; 
that  being  born  with  congenital  inclinations  to  lower 
good  rather  than  the  higher,  to  "  the  seen  and  the 
Temporal,"  not  the  "unseen  and  Eternal,"  they  obey 
these  in  their  conduct,  and  take  them  for  their  law. 

We  tread  at  this  point  on  the  edges  of  a  fact 
which  can  never  be  properly  omitted  from  view  in 
an  ethical  discussion ;  the  fact  that  man  has  pro- 
clivities to  wrong  doing,  innate  in  his  being,  and  dis- 
astrously prevalent  over  his  conduct.  That  this  is  a 
fact,  it  seems  to  me  no  observer  of  history,  no  careful 
student  of  the  experience  of  society,  no  earnest  ex- 
plorer of  his  own  moral  state,  can  intelligently  ques- 
tion. It  comes,  I  believe,  in  developement  of  that 
special  economy  of  God — the   whole  fruition  of  which, 


160  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

as  I  said  in  the  first  Lecture,  is  yet  to  be  waited  for 
-^which  interlinks  generations,  and  sends  each  life 
transmitted  to  its  possessor  through  parents  and  pre- 
decessors. From  this  it  now  comes  to  pass,  as  from 
this  hereafter  just  the  opposite  shall  result,  that  he 
who  is  born  derives  appetencies  from  his  ancestry 
which  seek  Indulgence  rather  than  Virtue;  which 
make  pleasure  and  power  more  attractive  to  the  soul 
than  that  Moral  Goodness  whose  law  is  self-denial, 
and  whose  rewards  are  unseen.  But  though  these  do 
in  fact  direct  men's  action,  and  prefigure  their  career, 
they  do  not  compel  or  necessitate  that  action ;  they 
do  not  destroy  our  capacity  for  Virtue.  Upon  that 
capacity  our  obligation  is  based.  Upon  the  assump- 
tion of  that  capacity  the  whole  law  of  God  concern- 
ing us  proceeds.  It  is  indeed  true,  as  Jouffroy  has 
said,  that  "there  is  a  great  diiference  between  the 
destiny  which  man  here  actually  attains,  and  that 
which  is  traced  in  plain  characters  on  his  nature." 
The  confession  of  the  Roman  philosopher  and  poet  is 
the  plaint   of  humanity  in   aU   the  ages  : 

Video  mcliora,  proboque ; 
Sed  deteriora  sequor. 

But  the  diamond  unworn  is  still  a  diamond.  And 
the  power  unused  is  not  therefore  less  real,  or  less 
majestic.     What  men  do,  is  by  no  means  the  measure 


ENDOWED     FOR     VIRTUE.  161 

of  what  they  might  do,  if  they  used  with  a  rational 
energy  their  powers.  And  looking  upon  the  soul  of 
man,  we  cannot  but  see  in  it,  in  its  conscience,  in 
its  judgment,  in  its  moral  sensibilities,  in  its  faculty 
of  free  will,  the  native  capacity  for  a  triumphant 
Virtue ;  a  virtue,  in  fact,  the  more  triumphant  because 
it  is  ^a  victory,  won  by  struggles.' 

That  very  fact  which  looks  darkest  in  our  organ- 
ization becomes  explicable,  I  think,  it  takes  a  new 
and  illustrious  meaning,  when  we  think  that  the  soul 
has  authority  over  circumstances,  can  even  arrest 
and  resist  dispositions,  and  change  their  course.  Bec- 
carria  is  nobler,  who  converts  a  naturally  ungenerous 
temper,  severe  and  sour,  into  one  yet  more  eminent  for 
humanity  and  patience.  The  Jewish  officer,  whose 
bigoted  zealotry  would  have  crushed  Christianity, 
wins  all  the  more  our  love  and  homage,  when,  yield- 
ing to  a  voice  that  addresses  his  higher  powers,  he 
turns  sharply  upon  his  path,  till  courtesy,  delicacy, 
the  most  tender  generosity,  the  most  winning  humil- 
ity, the  most  undaunted  self-sacrifice,  become  habitual 
with  him,  all  founded  in  the  permanence  of  a  con- 
summate Love.  And  every  soul  which  God  hath 
formed,  intelligent,  conscientious,  with  liberty  of 
choice,  independent  on  motives,  and  supreme  over  ac- 
tion,  may  attain  a   more    elevated    and   magnanimous 

virtue   by  reason   of    even  the    hindrances   that  sur- 

11 


162 

round  it ;  and  trampling  beneath  it  the  outward  ob- 
stacles, triumphing  over  the  inward  propensity,  may 
achieve  g,  moral  victory  to  be  chronicled  in  light, 
and  celebrated  in  song,  when  the  stars  which  are  its 
platform  shall  have  vanished  as  a  cloud. 

Whether  it  will  do  this,  untaught  and  unaided  by  spe- 
cial Divine  provisions  of  grace,  is  another  question,  and 
a  great  one.  Whether  it  can  do  it,  in  conformity  with 
its  native  constitution,  in  developement  of  the  forces 
which  God  has  lodged  in  its  being ;  whether  it  has 
the  original  capacity  to  take  righteousness  for  its  law 
instead  of  expediency,  and  to  choose  the  True  and 
the  Just  as  its  ends,  instead  of  the  Agreeable ; — is  a 
question  by  itself.  And  I  see  not  how  any  can  an- 
swer it  in  the  negative.  And  so  its  character  shall 
become  the  most  noble.  The  spontaneous  expression 
of  a  natural  innocence  shall  not  be  comparable  to  that 
majestic  and  disciplined  Virtue  attained  after  mighty 
endeavor  and  struggle ;  and  the  goodness,  the  wis- 
dom, and  the  power  of  God,  so  conspicuously  mani- 
fested, as  if  written  on  the  signet,  in  the  intellect 
of  man,  shall  be  yet  more  impressively  displayed  in 
his  moral  constitution. 

Therein  they  shall  gain  the  highest  exhibition  we 
yet  have  sought  for  them.  I  look  upon  the  forms 
of  material  beauty,  the  sea,  the  azure,  the  light  of 
flowers,  the  sheen  of  stars;  I  look  upon  the   instinc- 


ENDOWETD     FOR     VIRTUE.  163 

tive  intelligence  of  animals,  the  art  of  the  beaver, 
the  cunning  of  the  fox,  the  careful  and  instructed 
fidelity  of  the  dog;  and  then  I  turn  from  all  these 
classes,  in  all  their  development,  to  the  great  Soul  of 
Man ;  and  it  is  from  above,  while  they  are  of  the 
earth.  It  hath  celestial  prophecies  in  it.  It  only  is 
capable,  through  its  spiritual  faculty,  of  attaining 
that  personal  assimilation  to  the  Divine,  which  Soc- 
rates describes  as  the  goal  of  human  effort.  It  only 
is  formed  for  the  exercise  of  Virtue. 

Whatever  then  of  spiritual  energy  and  mastery 
is  expressed  in  the  Reason,  the  Conscience,  and  the 
Will,  aU  this  is  declared  to  have  residence  forever 
in  Him  who  formed  these  mighty  powers.  Whatever 
of  goodness  is  demonstrated  in  the  preference  of  vir- 
tue and  its  law  over  all  other  good,  is  shown  to  per- 
tain in  an  unlimited  degree  to  that  Supreme  soul 
which  framed  our  own  to  realize  this  end,  which  will 
not  let  it  rest  beneath  this,  which  animates  it  to 
this  by  every  appropriate  incentive  and  motive,  which 
takes  it  when  it  gains  this  to  instant  and  perfect  com- 
munion with  itself!  If  the  earth  were  one  resplendent 
chrysolite,  it  could  not  rival  in  dignity  and  value  one 
Virtuous  Soul.  And  He  who  forms  us  capable  of 
that,  and  who  presses  us  toward  it  by  such  constant 
impulsions,  transcends  our  speech,  inhabits  light,  and 
hath  His  glory  above  the  Heavens ! 


LECTURE    IV. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

In  the  last  Lecture  of  this  course  we  consid- 
ered the  Human  Soul  as  formed  by  its  Creator  for  the 
attainment  of  Virtue,  and  endeavored  to  unfold  that 
equipment  of  faculties  by  which  it  is  prepared  for 
this  eminent  good.  The  Law  of  Righteousness  is 
moral,  spiritual,  unlike  the  laws  of  the  physical  crea- 
tion. Conformity  to  it,  which  is  the  essence  of 
Virtue,  is  the  highest  personal  accomplishment  of 
man;  which  makes  his  name  venerable,  and  gives 
him  a  true  intrinsic  dignity,  above  aU  comparison 
with  titular  rank;  which  assimilates  him  reaUy  with 
the  Divine  mind  itself.  The  relation  sustained  by 
the  soul  to  this,  is  therefore  a  theme  of  eminent  in- 
terest. It  never  properly  can  cease  to  attract  us. 
And  as  we  surveyed  this,  in  the  Lecture  referred 
to,  the  ways  of  God  were  disclosed,  and  were  justi- 
fied. In  every  soul  is  found  implanted,  as  was  then 
made  apparent,  the  innate  sense  of  the  reality  of 
Virtue,  of  the  nobleness  of  its  nature,  and  the  author- 
ity of  its  law.     Each  possesses  the  power, — through 


166 

the  aid  of  the  judgment  taking  up  and  interpreting 
the  impressions  which  are  made  on  the  moral  sensi- 
bility, through  the  aid  of  the  Reason  apprehending 
the  truth  which  is  perfect  and  universal, — of  ascer- 
taining, or  certainly  of  recognizing  when  presented, 
the  perfect  and  permanent  law  of  virtue;  and  also 
of  applying  this  law  to  life,  and  exhibiting  its  rela- 
tion to  the  details  of  conduct.  Each  soul  is  so  formed, 
too,  that  those  motives  to  virtue  which  alone  can 
properly  impel  to  its  attainment,  lie  near  its  con- 
sciousness, and  are  developed  and  brought  against 
it  with  the  very  commencement  of  rational  life.  The 
impulses  to  particular  social  virtues  are  natively 
fixed  and  strong  in  each.  And  each  has  the  power 
of  originating  and  determining  its  own  moral  move- 
ments, of  choosing  its  own  course,  of  acting  in  view 
of  one  motive  or  another,  and  so  of  conforming  itself 
in  action  and  in  habit  to  the  law  of  Righteousness. 

Through  this  special  and  sublime  constitution  of 
its  forces,  the  soul  of  man  becomes  therefore  in- 
teriorly adapted  to  Virtue.  Neither  ^motives,'  as 
we  call  them,  from  the  outward  world,  which  are 
really  only  occasions  of  action,  nor  inward  disposi- 
tions or  innate  inclinations,  can  with  any  supreme 
and  necessitating  force  detain  it  from  that.  But  in 
the  use  of  its  rare  and  high  faculties  it  may  real- 
ize a  virtue,  if  true   to  itself,  only  the  ^  more  conspic- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   167 

nous  and  memorable  for  being  wrought  out  against 
resistance  and  difficulty.  •  Its  virtue  shall  be  grander 
than  a  natural  innocence ;  as  victory  is  sublimer  than 
an  easy  success,  and  the  attainment  we  make  through 
the  mastery  of  obstacles  more  noble  than  that  to 
which  we  are  bom.  If  the  instances  are  few  in 
which  this  has  been  gained,  or  has  even  been 
sought,  by  the  self-guided  soul,  if  Revelation  is  re- 
quired to  incite  us  to  this,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  aid  us  to  attain  it,  it  is  because  man  has  not  used 
his  powers  as  he  should  have  done,  and  not  because 
his  endowment  of  faculty  is  in  any  wise  defective. 

A  repository  of  personal  and  inteUigent  Life,  a  fit 
subject  of  Knowledge,  a  fit  subject  of  Virtue,  the 
Soul  has  therefore  already  been  declared  to  us;  and 
the  kindness,  the  power,  and  the  wisdom  of  its  Au- 
thor, I  am  sure  have  been  shown  in  it  as  they  are 
not  exhibited  in  any  most  curious  construction  of 
matter,  in  any  adjustment  of  its  forces  and  laws. 
With  all  the  rapidity  and  slightness  of  treatment  to 
which  the  limits  of  these  Lectures  constrain  me,  I 
might  here  rest  the  question  concerning  the  character 
and  the  greatness  of  our  Creator,  before  your  judg- 
ment, assured  that  your  minds  would  give  witness 
unto  Him.  They  could  not  do  otherwise  without 
denying  their   own  essential  constitution ! 

But  now  we  are  further  to  investigate  the  Soul  in 


168  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

its  fitness  for  Virtuous  and  Beneficent  Operation,  on 
the  world  around  it,  and  on  other  beings ;  to  see 
how  far  it  has  been  furnished  for  this ;  with  what 
tendencies  it  is  stocked,  with  what  faculties  equipped, 
preparing  it  to  realize  this  additional  Good.  Here 
another  test  is  offered,  another  exhibition  may  prop- 
erly be  sought,  of  both  the  quality  and  the  energy 
of  that  Infinite  Soul  from  which  our  own  derives  its 
being,  and  to  which  its  marvellous  and  harmonious 
structure  has  thus  far  rendered  its  constant  praise.  If 
God  has  created  us  with  reference  to  this,  and  has 
formed  and  endowed  us  especially  for  accomplishing 
it.  He  shows  himself  to  us  in  another  demonstration 
of  His  infinite  perfections. 

It  is  evident  that  throughout  the  visible  Creation 
the  elements  and  forces  which  combine  to  complete 
it  are  ever  inter-active,  the  one  upon  the  other.  The 
Sun  is  supreme,  amid  our  part  of  this ;  and  the  Sun 
is  not  left  to  an  indolent  splendor,  folding  up  in  his 
own  circumference  his  light,  and  imparting  no  force  to 
subordinate  spheres.  But  with  positive  action,  at  each 
instant  of  his  continuance,  he  emits  and  distributes 
of  the  glory  which  he  hath,  and  the  attraction  which 
he  holds,  that  the  planetary  system  may  be  guided 
and  irradiated ;  that  other  suns,  and  the  worlds  which 
surround  them,  may  be  cognizant  of  this  orb,  bear- 
ing up  in  our  skies  his   heavenly  torch.     To  both  the 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   169 

Sun  and  the  Moon,  we  are  impelled  to  apply  a  per- 
sonal designation,  by  reason  of  this  their  perpetual 
operation.  The  one  is  the  masculine,  the  other  the 
feminine,  not  in  poetry  alone,  but  in  ordinary  speech, 
among  the  powers  which  rule  our  sphere.  They  meas- 
ure our  time  for  us,  a  magnificent  horologe.  They 
distinguish  our  place  for  us,  with  micrometric  exact- 
ness :  telling  the  sailor  where  he  is  on  the  sea,  or  the 
traveller  amid  untrodden  wastes.  They  keep  the  tides 
of  the  deep  in  motion,  and  affect  yet  more  largely 
the  currents  of  the  atmosphere.  They  hold  the  Earth 
in  its  relative  place,  while  sweeping  with  it  through 
the  untravelled  ether;  and  they  cover  it  with  light, 
at  morning  and  at  evening,  by  day  and  by  night, 
as  if  that  light  were  a  natural  emanation  from  its 
own  rugged  surface.  They  are  working  on  the  world, 
at  each  instant  of  their  being. 

The  Earth,  also,  which  responds  to  them,  is  not 
passive  beneath  the  light ;  but  with  fruitful  enter- 
prise, replying  to  its  appeal,  she  brings  forth  every 
where,  from  hid  sources  of  life,  the  mossy  and  verd- 
urous herbage  of  the  Spring,  the  fragrance  of  flow- 
ers and  their  delicate  splendor,  the  bounteous  strength 
and  majesty  of  trees.  The  tree,  in  its  sphere,  is 
fruit-producing;  or,  if  not  so,  inhaling  and  exhaling 
the  invisible  gases  which  make  up  the  atmosphere, 
it  purifies    the    air,   and    qualifies    it    to    sustain    and 


170  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

nourish  human  life.  The  very  flower  looks  up  in  its 
timid  grace,,  with  an  eye  in  every  petal  and  a  lung 
in  every  leaf,  and  even  fulfils  a  spiritual  office  in  ad- 
ministering to  the  taste,  and  cherishing  the  sensibility 
of  him  who  bends  over  it.  Not  only  does  it  work 
in  developing  the  wise  economy  of  its  structure,  in 
distributing  its  germs  and  reproducing  its  kind,  but 
it  breathes  a  sweeter  aroma  into  Literature  ;  it  re- 
flects its  own  grace  upon  the  song  that  describes  it, 
and  so  mediates  a '  lesson  of  quickening  beauty  to 
many  generations.  Nay  ;  even  the  iron  or  rocky  mass, 
inorganic  in  its  structure,  and  only  held  together  by 
cohesive  attractions,  exhibits  the  same  tendency  which 
we  trace  upward  from  it,  in  all  the  ascending  grada- 
tions of  life.  Its  very  weight'  denotes  an  activity, 
which  permeates  and  enforces  each  passive  particle. 
It  binds  other  objects  and  forms  of  existence  to  it- 
self, and  to  the  Earth.  It  cannot  be  conceived  by 
us,  apart  from  this  rude  yet  real  operation.  And 
so,  in  its  place,  it  is  as  constantly  at  work  as  any 
quick  eye  that  glances  over  space,  as  any  fleet  and 
sinewy  wing  that  winnows  the  air. 

It  is  thus  characteristic  of  the  creation  around  us 
that  every  thing  in  it  acts  on  something  other,  and 
that  aU  are  combined  in  perpetual  operation.  It  il- 
lustrates the  foresight,  and  the  infinite  force,  of  Him 
who  framed   all.     It  indicates,   even,  to  the   thought- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   171 

ful  observer,  the  constant  omnipresent  activity  of  His 
will,  which  is  now  as  in  time  past  the  source  of  all 
movement,  the  substance  of  all  being,  the  fountain 
and  the  measure  of  all  law  in  the  universe.  The 
ocean  works,  as  well  as  the  land;  supplying  the 
clouds  with  their  watery  burdens,  affecting  the  tem- 
perature of  different  regions,  invigorating  the  life  of 
the  tribes  on  its  shores.  Its  currents  are  workmen. 
The  harvests  which  it  yields  are  harvests  of  heroism. 
The  cavern  works,  as  well  as  the  mountain;  opening 
the  route  to  mineral  deposites ;  forming  a  tunnel  for 
streams  to  flow  through;  hanging  its  arches  with 
starry  stalactites.  And  the  triumphs  of  civilization 
are  most  evidently  seen,  not  so  much  in  the  litera- 
tures or  th«  governments  which  man  builds,  the  cities 
he  founds  or  the  empires  he  extends,  as  in  the  uses 
he  developes  from  materials  before  counted  worthless; 
the  occult  virtues,  and  powers  of  operation,  which  he 
shows  to  reside  in  the  metal  or  the  coal,  in  the  herb 
or  the   earth,  the  shell  or  the  bone. 

When  we  come  to  Man,-  then,  the  personal  crown 
of  this  terrestrial  system,  we  anticipate  Virtuous  and 
Beneficent  Operation  as  his  mission  and  privilege. 
The  plan  which  originated  and  which  governs  the  sys- 
tem, would  turn  a  sharp  corner,  would  be  reversed 
upon  itself,  if  this  were  not  so.  And  the  more  abun- 
dantly he  is  fitted  for  this,  the   more   signal  and  evi- 


172 

dent  will  be  the  wisdom  which  has  formed  him. 
The  intuitions  of  Reason  accept  such  operation  as  one 
of  the  grand  Ideals  of  humanity.  It  is  not  religion 
or  poetry  only,  but  philosophy  as  well,  which  says 
with  the  great  German :  "  The  end  of  Being  is  an  Ac- 
tion, not  a  Thought,  though  that  were  the  noblest." 
God  finds  in  such  operation  His  rest,  and  is  con- 
stantly manifested  as  putting  it  forth.  If  the  soul  is 
prepared  for  it,  it  is  kindred  with  His  ! 

That  the  Body  is  prepared  for  effective  operation, 
needs  no  demonstration.  The  proof  of  it  is  written 
on  the  front  of  the  frame.  The  feature  which  strikes 
•  us  first  in  its  conformation — the  perfect  mobility  and 
liberty  of  the  upper  limbs,  to  operate  backward,  for- 
ward, upward,  downward,  for  any  effects  which  we 
,may  desire — this,  of  itself,  sets  the  principle  before  us. 
And  as  we  notice  further  the  exquisite  structure  of 
the  hands  which  complete  these,  their  power,  their 
pliancy,  their  capacity  of  opening  and  closing  at  will, 
their  singular  sensibility;  as  we  notice  the  relation  of 
the  thumb  to  the  hand,  which  a  celebrated  writer 
has  called,  you  know,  '  a  second  hand ;'  as  we  remem- 
ber how  all  these  are  related  to  the  eye,  to  the  ear, 
to  the  brain,  and  how  aU  parts  and  members  of  the 
body  converge  to  their  free  and  various  action ; — the 
inference  seems  inevitable,  it  becomes  just  as  evident 
as   the   structure   of  these   organs,  that  man  was   in- 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       173 

tended,  in  his  physical  frame,  especially  for  a  Work- 
man. He  might  have  experienced  and  enjoyed  as 
much,  in  some  other  form  of  physical  constitution. 
He  could  hardly  have  accomplished  as  much,  in  any 
other.  And  so  this  was  given  him. — But  the  ques- 
tion which  now  occupies  us,  concerns  the  preparation 
of  the  Soul  for  this  ofl&ce ;  and  our  business  is  to 
investigate  the  forces  which  show  it  ordained  for  this, 
and  fitly  equipped  for  it.  K  I  mistake  not,  we  shall 
find  these  to  be  both  various  and  complete. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  it  has  the  central  faculties  of 
THE  Will  and  the  Judgment,  wherewith  to  originate 
and  to  guide  its  operation.  It  can  direct  its  own  ac- 
tion, and  it  holds  within  itself  the  unfailing  motor 
and  governor  of  that  action. 

The  action  of  the  star,  as  it  moves  through  its 
orbit,  is  mere  passive  acquiescence  in  an  impulse 
from  without.  An  exterior  force,  impressed  upon  it, 
compels  it  mechanically  to  pursue  its  revolutions.  This 
shoves  it  along  the  airy  grooves,  impalpable  as 
thought,  but  binding  as  iron,  that  stretch  through 
space ;  and  the  moment  this  ceases,  it  pauses  on  its 
track,  and  drops  from  the  circle  of  consenting  worlds. 
The  same  is  true,  evidently,  of  all  action  and  mo- 
tion in  the  material  system;  the  same  of  aU  the 
involuntary  processes  of  animal  life.  The  light  is 
distributed   every  whither  from  the   sun;    the  flower 


174 

grows  up,  and  is  clothed  with  its  beauty ;  the  jewel 
emits  its  vivid  lustre ;  the  waters  stiffen,  and  are 
hardened  into  ice,  or  again  with  loosened  foot  and 
voice  trip  singing  to  the  sea ;  forests  grow,  oceans 
surge,  or  are  pacified  and  stilled;  millions  of  ani- 
mate forms  are  produced,  are  matured,  and  are  left 
to  dissolution  ;  all,  under  the  action  of  exterior 
forces,  to  which  their  obedience  is  compulsory  and 
physical.  The  whole  operation  which  we  notice  in 
the  sphere  of  matter  and  its  laws,  has  its  necessary 
origin  in  a  power  beyond.  It  is  founded  upon  that 
poewr,  is  limited  by  it ;  and  when  that  ceases  to  oper- 
ate for  it,  it  is  instantly  at  an  end.  There  is  hardly 
another  fact  which  so  strikingly  reveals  to  us  the 
real  helplessness  of  the  creation ;  its  perfect  and  per- 
petual dependence  for  continuance  on  the  one  effi- 
cient Will   above  it! 

But  the  moment  we  enter  the  province  of  the 
Soul,  we  separate  from  this  law ;  we  find  there  a 
representative  of  this  higher  and  supreme  Will;  we 
meet  the  strange  power,  running  parallel  with  God's, 
of  originating  action,  and  of  freely  and  spontaneously 
carrying  it  forward.  The  soul  depends  on  no  out- 
ward impulsions,  to  commence,  or  afterward  to  sus- 
tain, its  activity.  In  the  exercise  of  its  will  it  can 
choose  not  only  how  it  will  act,  but  that  it  will 
act,   and   when  it  will   act.     Unlike  any  piece  of  cu- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   175 

rious  mechanism,  which  must  first  be  set  in  motion, 
and  then  be  kept  in  motion,  by  an  influence  from 
abroad,  the  soul  once  created  supplies  ever  after- 
ward its  own  directing  and  administrative  force.  It 
commences  and  carries  on,  by  the  law  of  its  con- 
stitution, its  proper  operation.  It  is  a  perpetual 
deep-centred  spring,  having  its  far  head-waters  indeed 
in  the  mind  of  the  Most  High,  but  supplying  its 
own  unfailing  fountains  with  up-springing  fulness, 
throughout  its  life.  God  has  caused  this  to  be  so, 
by  ordaining  it  with  this  signal  prerogative  of  spon- 
taneity ;  by  taking  it  out  of  the  sphere  of  mere  na- 
ture, and  allying  it  through  its  freedom  with  His  own 
constitution.  He  thus  gives  it  the  power  to  set  it- 
self in  motion,  and  to  keep  itself  in  motion,  inde- 
pendently of  outward  supports  and  auxiliaries ;  and 
He  shows  it  adapted  for  a  working  as  permanent  as 
the  duration  of  its  being. 

It  cannot  be  holden,  even  by  force,  from  the  ex- 
ercise of  this  power.  For  the  action  of  the  soul  is 
not  conditioned  upon  circumstances,  for  its  quality  and 
nobility,  nor  always  for  its  eifectiveness.  It  may  be 
as  noble,  and  as  really  effectual,  when  accomplished 
in  the  desert,  or  the  solitary  cell,  as  when  ringing 
through  the  forum  on  the  words  of  the  orator,  or 
moving  by  its  brilliance  the  admiration  of  throngs. 
No  outward   pressure    can  therefore  despoil  the  spirit 


176  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

of  this  power,  or  even  detain  it  from  the  exercise 
of  this.  It  is  the  essence  of  Slavery,  and  a  fact 
which  exhibits  it  in  plain  antagonism  to  the  system 
of  God,  that  it  seeks  to  do  this ;  to  merge  the  free 
and  motive  will  which  works  in  one  man,  in  that  of 
his  stronger  or  craftier  neighbor.  But  even  that  can- 
not do  this.  It  can  only  confine  and  shackle  the 
body.  It  cannot  touch,  with  its  harsh  limitations,  the 
movement  of  the  spirit.  For  the  planning  of  an  es- 
cape is  as  real  an  action  as  its  subsequent  accom- 
plishment; and  the  patience  which  cannot  be  broken 
by  persecutions  is  more  heroic,  a  nobler  work,  be- 
fore God's  eye,  than  the  splendid  achievements  of 
eminent  Captains. 

Continuous,  too,  is  this  power  of  the  soul  to  origi- 
nate and  carry  forward  its  own  operations.  Fatigue 
does  not  cause  it  to  pause  and  cease;  nor  does  the 
dissolution  of  the  body  destroy  it.  Fatigue  hardly 
comes,  indeed,  in  the  mental  constitution,  with  the 
use  of  this  faculty.  The  body  is  wearied  in  a  succes- 
sion of  efforts ;  and  while  the  soul  remains  closely 
allied  with  that,  it  seems  in  some  measure  to  share 
its  weariness.  But  even  here  is  often  manifested, 
it  sometimes  is  very  remarkably  exhibited,  the  rad- 
ical disparity  between  the  soul  and  the  body,  the 
eminent  and  permanent  supremacy  of  the  former.  In 
the   midst    of  the    decline    and    decay    of  the   frame. 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   177 

when  every  member  seems  tottering  to  its  downfall, 
the  unwearied  spirit,  its  force  unabated,  works  on  as 
ever,  its  activity  becoming  only  more  imperious  for 
the  sluggishness  of  its  instruments.  If  unmindful  of 
the  change  from  the  earth  which  is  before  it,  it  plans 
new  schemes,  and  enlists  in  new  efforts,  with  a  vivid 
enthusiasm  which  shows  its  vehement  motive  power, 
like  the  chariot-wheels  in  ancient  races,  rolling  burning 
toward  the  goal.  If  contemplating  the  passage  from  the 
Present  to  the  Future,  with  the  faith  of  the  Christian, 
it  anticipates  the  grander  activities  of  the  Immortals, 
and  waits  with  eager  triumphant  eye  for  winged  robes 
and  golden  trumpets.  In  either  case  is  declared  the 
essential  independence  of  the  soul  on  the  body;  its 
capacity  for  continuous,   stiU-aspiring  activity. 

It  is  strictly  discriminated  from  all  objects  in  na- 
ture, it  is  shown  in  interior  resemblance  to  God,  by 
this  constitution.  It  is  fitted  and  fashioned,  in  the 
frame  of  its  being,  for  a  permanent,  wide-reaching, 
and  effective  operation ;  an  operation  to  be  prompted 
and  sustained  by  itself,  while  guided  by  the  Judg- 
ment, and  directed  to  its  ends.  The  mobility  of  the 
arms  is  no  more  clear  an  attestation  of  His  plan  who 
formed  those  arms  to  execute  readily  the  purposes  of 
the  Will,  than  is  the  spontaneous  activity  of  the  Soul, 
its  capacity  for  various  and  diversified  movement,  the 

proof  that  He  who  made  it  thus  has  fashioned  it  for 

12 


178  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

working.  The  active  force  is  centrally  lodged  in  it; 
and  all  the  other  related  powers,  the  perceptive,  the 
sympathetic,  the  conscientious,  like  shafts  and  valves, 
and  pliant  bands,  of  the  assembled  engine,  are  inter- 
locked with  this  main  energy.  All  conspire  with  this 
to  make  man's  work  noble. 

II.  But  this  is  not  all,  nor  is  it  the  most  import- 
ant of  the  facts  to  be  observed.  It  is  further  apparent 
that  the  soul  has,  imbedded  in  its  very  constitution, 
such  Impulses  'jlO  Action,  as  make  that  action,  we  might 
almost  say,  a  necessity ;  producing  it  as  naturally, 
wherever  they  are  obeyed,  as  the  force  of  the  tree 
produces  its  blossoms,  or  as  chemical  changes  produce 
diverse  colors. — The  fin  of  the  fish  does  not  more  evi- 
dently convey  the  power,  and  betoken  the  function, 
of  moving  in  the  sea,  or  the  wing  of  the  bird  that 
of  sailing  on  the  air,  than  do  these  quickening  and 
propellant  forces,  inherent  in  man's  being,  proclaim  him 
ordained  for  wide-reaching  operation.  Observe  the  va- 
riety and  the   energy  of  them  ! 

Every  force  in  our  nature  seeks  action  as  its  ele- 
ment. Decline  and  enfeeblement,  with  an  inevitable 
unhappiness,  come  with  the  want  of  that.  Confine  a 
man  from  such  action,  by  an  injury  or  by  imprison- 
ment, and  even  the  physical  frame  shows  the  blight. 
It  grows  faded  and  sapless,  like  the  flower  or  the 
shrub  maturing  amid  darkness.    Each  muscle  demands, 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   179 

by  the  law  of  its  constitution,  the  discipline  and  the 
culture  of  healthful  use.  The  tenuous  nerves  which 
penetrate  the  system,  and  are  concentred  in  the  brain, 
run  every  way  seeking  their  objects ;  and  if  they  do 
not  find  them,  then,  just  as  truly  as  if  overloaded  and 
fatigued  with  excitements,  they  vex  the  frame  with 
their  unoccupied  activities.  And  so  with  the  mental 
sensibilities  and  powers  which  are  lodged  behind 
these ;  so  with  the  wiU,  which  is  the  muscle  of  the 
soul ;  with  the  faculty  of  thinking,  which  makes  every 
nerve  and  each  organ  its  minister.  Each  spiritual  fac- 
ulty demands  employment,  in  order  to  its  true  sanity 
and  vigor ;  in  order  that  it  may  administer  happiness, 
and  may  not  become  the  occasion  of  pain.  And  if 
you  deprive  it  of  the  opportunity  of  that,  like  the 
medicine  which  is  poison  when  it  stands  in  the  sys- 
tem, it  perturbs  the  whole.  A  constant  spring  is  thus 
against  every  power — an  elastic  tendency,  I  should 
say  more  accurately,  is  intervolved  with  it,  like  a 
spring  coiled  up  in  a  flexible  fabric, — which  makes 
passivity  a  matter  of  resistance ;  which  prompts  con- 
tinuedly  to  forward  working. 

We  observe  this  in  the  child ;  where  self-discipline 
is  imperfect,  where  habits  and  rules  have  not  be- 
come fixed,  and  where  therefore  the  instincts  have 
their  freshest  exhibition.  The  power  of  observing, 
of  remembering,  of  comparing,   and   finally  of  arrang- 


180 


ing  the  objects  thus  discerned,  and  even  of  consid- 
ering its  own  mental  states,  and  combining  with  its 
thoughts  the  thoughts  of  others — in  what  ceaseless 
operation  are  these  seen  to  be,  in  the  mind  of  the 
child !  The  very  glory  of  art  is  achieved,  is  it  not  ? 
in  expressing  this  phenomenon,  which  looks  forth  on 
us  like  a  vision.  There  is  no  other  canvass  so  precious 
among  men  as  that  on  which  is  generously  rendered 
this  teeming,  buoyant,  and  spontaneous  force  from  the 
spirit  of  the  child,  irradiating  his  face  like  a  uni- 
versal halo,  suffusing  with  clear  intellectual  beauty 
his  whole  bright  aspect.  Sleep  itself  does  not  change 
him.  It  hardly  can  check  his  incessant  activity.  The 
very  bed  is  canopied  with  dreams ;  the  wearied  frame 
is  despoiled  of  rest;  the  shackled  tongue  struggles 
beneath  its  bonds;  the  lips  are  parted  in  broken 
ejaculations ;  before  his  alert  and  unwearying  pow- 
ers, to  which  action  is  an  instinct. 

Precisely  the  same  tendency  is  observable  in  adult 
life,  though  there  self-control  has  become  more  habitual. 
An  enforced  inertness  is  everywhere  the  condition  of 
repining  and  want ;  of  a  suffering  as  prolonged  as  the 
continuance  of  the  durance.  Even  voluntary  seclusion 
from  active  pursuits  brings  immediate  unrest;  and  it 
cannot  be  maintained,  without  impairing  the  sound- 
ness  of  the   whole    mental  frame.     How   disastrously 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       181 

is   this   written  in  the  history  of  monasteries  !     It  is 
shown  not  less  clearly  in  more  familiar  instances. 

The  man  of  wealth,  retired  from  his  active  en- 
gagement in  affairs,  to  rest  in  the  mansion  which  his 
wealth  has  provided,  is  compelled,  if  he  would  be 
happy,  to  send  his  thoughts  and  purposes  abroad  on 
every  hand ;  to  employ  them  continually,  in  some 
form  of  operation.  He  carefully  builds  and  decorates 
his  house ;  lays  out  his  grounds ;  plants  gardens  and 
graperies;  arranges  the  offices  and  subordinate  out- 
buildings, with  an  eye  to  convenience  and  picturesque 
effect ;  he  sets  out,  trims,  changes  and  re-trims  his 
hedge-rows  and  shrubbery;  he  thins  the  grove  of  its 
superfluous  trees,  clears  it  of  underbrush,  and  opens 
careful  rifts  in  the  foliage,  through  which  the  am- 
bient glory  of  the  sunshine  may  fall  in  patches 
and  flecks  upon  the  sod ;  he  builds  his  gateway,  of 
architectural  device ;  marks  out  his  lawn,  and  grades 
and  smooths  it ;  he  makes  the  hard  and  gleaming 
roadway  meander  through  it,  in  exact  geometrical 
regularity  of  vagrancy;  he  crosses  and  interlaces  it 
with  the  less  distinct  foot-paths;  he  opens  the  basin, 
for  springs  to  pour  their  currents  into ;  he  brings 
those  springs  from  distant  hills,  to  form  a  mirror,  in 
this  emerald  setting,  for  the  beautiful  scene  which 
his  taste  has  created ;  he  makes  a  fountain  throw  up 
into  the  air  its  silvery  sheaf,  blossomed  over  and  tas- 


182  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

selled  with  crystal  pendants ;  he  plans,  and  ornaments, 
and  fills  his  Library ;  cuts  out  queer  niches  in  the 
walls  on  all  sides,  to  accommodate  the  veriest  whim- 
sies of  his  fancy ;  puts  busts  along  his  hall,  and  dis- 
perses statues  about  his  grounds,  as  if  the  wise  had 
their  haunts  in  the  one,  and  the  spirits  of  the  Earth 
had  leaped  into  form  amid  the  beauty  of  the  other ; 
he  tries  to  make  every  part  complete,  to  assemble 
all  means  of  convenience  and  luxury,  to  contrive  such 
accessories  of  comfort  as  others  have  not  planned, 
and  to  give  to  his  home  an  absolute  material  pro- 
portion and  finish ; — ^and  when  all  is  done,  and  there 
is  no  more  room  for  superfluous  additions,  he  is  rest- 
less as  a  robin  confined  in  its  cage.  He  has  spent 
more  thought  on  the  scene  of  his  repose,  than  it  took 
to  accumulate  the  fortune  which  has  reared  it.  And 
exactly  when  men  consider  it  complete,  it  has  lost 
for  him  its  chiefest  attraction. 

He  must  then  find  employment  and  occupation 
abroad;  as  a  citizen,  in  suggesting  or  superintending 
some  new  pubhc  works ;  as  a  philanthropist  or  a 
Christian,  in  devising  and  forwarding  those  movements 
of  charity  which  shall  inwardly  quicken  and  bless 
society ;  sometimes  as  an  author ;  sometimes  as  a 
politician;  sometimes  as  a  mere  ofiicious  intermeddler 
with  all  men's  concerns.  He  cannot  be  content,  in 
the   absence  of  occupation.     The  trophies  of  the  hero 


EQUIPPED    FOR     BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       183 

would  not  let  the  young  Greek  sleep.  The  instincts 
of  his  nature,  will  not  let  him  lie  dormant.  The 
instances  are  not  rare  in  which  men  of  this  class, 
after  a  few  months  spent  in  that  ^  elegant  leisure' 
to  which  they  had  all  their  life  looked  forward  as 
their  crowning  reward,  have  returned  to  their  busi- 
ness as  a  necessary  relief  from  its  intolerable  ennui. 
The  instances  are  not  unknown,  in  which  they  have 
rushed  back,  from  the  midst  of  their  retirement,  into 
the  wildest  and  most  daring  speculations ;  as  if  to 
compensate  themselves,  by  such  intemperate  activity, 
for  the  too  long  restraint  their  faculties  have  suf- 
fered. 

Of  course,  something  of  this  is  attributable  to  habit; 
which  cannot  be  suddenly  interrupted  without  pain. 
But  the  habit  itself  presupposes  and  demonstrates  an 
aptitude  for  it,  within  the  constitution ;  and  it  grew  to 
be  so  fixed  because  nature  tended  towards  it.  In  all 
walks  of  life  we  meet  the  same  tendency.  Each  vi- 
tal power,  each  mental  force,  is  instinct  with  aspi- 
rations for  appropriate  activity.  The  farmer,  the 
mechanic,  the  merchant,  the  scholar,  the  prisoner  in 
his  cell,  the  sailor  on  the  sea,  all  reveal  the  same 
law.  A  faculty  for  action,  in  the  human  constitution, 
brings  desire  after  action,  inseparably  involved  in  it. 
And  in  the  movements  of  private  life,  not  less  than 
the  developements  of  historical  enterprise,  we  discern 


184  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

the  same  permanent  condition  underneath ;  the  innate 
thirst  of  our  being  for  Work.  God  presses  the  soul 
to  this  by  an  immediate  impulse  from  the  centre  of 
its  hfe,  before  He  attracts  it  by  more  special  per- 
suasions. 

III.  But  such  persuasions  are  never  wanting.  It 
is  noticeable,  further,  in  connection  with  the  same 
theme,  that  the  soul  has  many  particular  Desires, 
which  equally  prompt  it  to  efficient  and  continuous 
operation  on  the  world,  or  on  other  persons,  as  the 
only  and  necessary  means  of  their  accomplishment. 
While-  it  has  the  power  for  such  operation,  and  the 
general  instinct  impelling  to  this,  it  holds  a  whole  cir- 
cle of  subordinate  desires,  which  cannot  be  satisfied 
except  through  this   means. 

We  have  the  desire  after  Knowledge,  for  example ; 
what  philosophers  describe  as  the  principle  of  Curios- 
ity; whereby  we  are  moved  not  only  to  search  out 
the  truths  which  are  abstract,  or  the  facts  which  lie 
in  the  sphere  of  our  consciousness,  but  also  to  dis- 
cover, to  interpret  into  their  meanings,  and  to  classify 
in  their  harmonies,  the  elements  of  science,  the  facts 
of  human  life,  the  principles  and  the  laws  of  social, 
political  and  rehgious  developement.  And  this  desire, 
which  is  native  to  the  soul,  and  which  grows  and  is 
intensified  in  proportion  as  it  is  gratified,  can  only  be 
reaHzed    by    a    strenuous    activity,    both    in  personal 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       185 

study  and  in  intercourse  with  others.  It  carries 
Humboldt  in  the  morning  of  life  to  the  subterranean 
galleries  of  Freyburg ;  and  afterwards,  over  the  breadth 
of  the  Llanos,  to  the  summit  of  Chimborazo,  into  the 
crumbling  and  perilous  depths  of  volcanic  craters,  em- 
bosoming lakes  of  floating  fire  amid  the  expanse  of 
unwasting  snows;  it  urges  him  through  thorny  and 
poisonous  forests  of  the  tropics,  up  the  tumultuous 
waters  of  unexplored  rivers,  across  the  rugged  and 
frozen  wastes  of  Northern  Asia,  to  the  cities  of  ice 
which  make  the  perpetual  prisons  of  the  Czar ;  in 
pursuit  of  new  flowers,  new  metals  and  minerals, 
and  new  tribes  of  men.  And  it  is  only  as  all  is 
patiently  accomplished,  that  there  forms  in  his  mind 
that  wealth  of  knowledge,  more  precious  than  veins 
of  gold  and  jasper  molten  amid  the  earth  by  subter- 
ranean fires,  which  finds  its  splendid  outburst  in  the 
"  Cosmos." 

The  same  earnest  thirst  for  the  attainment  of 
Truth,  inspires  each  student  in  whom  it  exists  to  a 
similar  endeavor,  though  humbler  in  its  measure. 
There  is  no  royal  road  to  knowledge.  No  seminary 
can  infuse  it,  w^hile  the  faculties  are  inert.  Except 
one  earn  it,  he  shall  not  have  it ;  or  if  he  gain  it  in 
outward  semblance,  it  shall  be  in  his  hand  Hke  the 
casket  of  jewels  the  spring  whereof  he  has  forgotten 
how  to  touch.     Visibly  it  is  his ;    its   inward  wealth 


186 

he  cannot  appropriate.  From  the  study  of  hooks, 
from  the  study  of  nature,  from  the  study  of  Man, 
this  knowledge  must  he  gathered.  And  so  the  Earth 
is  encompassed  hy  its  disciples ;  the  zones  hecome 
to  them  airy  lines;  the  changes  of  chmate,  from  the 
tropics  to  the  poles,  are  reckoned  hut  as  the  mile- 
stones of  their  strenuous  journey;  the  commonest 
earth  is  analysed  in  their  crucibles ;  the  most  com- 
plex statistics  are  gathered  in  their  tables;  and  all 
societies  and  kindreds  of  men  are  explored,  consid- 
ered, and  mingled  with,  by  them.  And  after  all, 
Work  is  needed  to  confirm  Knowledge.  Not  only  by 
careful  analysis  and  synthesis  must  one  estimate  and 
combine  the  elements  thus  acquired.  By  an  earn- 
est consideration  he  must  fully  appropriate  them.  By 
experiment  he  must  apply  them,  and  work  them  as 
mingling  warp  and  woof  into  the  stuff  of  his  per- 
sonal convictions,  in  order  to  incorporate  them  with 
his  own  mental  stock,  in  order  to  make  them  in 
the  truest  sense  Knowledge. 

So  we  have  a  desire,  more  general  than  this,  for 
personal  cultivation,  refinement,  and  power ;  an  in- 
stinctive desire  for  society  with  others,  the  free  com- 
panionship of  those  who  are  like  us ;  we  have  a 
desire  for  the  good  esteem  of  men,  and  that  gen- 
eral acknowledgment  of  our  powers  and  qualities 
which   we  feel   them   to   deserve ;    we   have   a   desire 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   187 

for  influence  over  others,  that  we  may  impress  our 
own  feeling  and  force  on  their  character  and  con- 
duct, that  we  may  assign  directions  to  their  action. 
As  our  views  become  enlarged,  and  our  moral  state 
is  elevated,  we  have  a  desire  for  the  happiness  of 
others,  our  kindred  and  friends  ;  then  of  those  who  are 
near  us,  or  of  those  who  are  like  us,  and  finally  of 
all  to  whom  we  sustain  any  human  relation.  And 
just  in  proportion  as  Religion  inspires  us,  and  affec- 
tion for  God  becomes  a  part  of  our  experience,  we 
have  a  desire  to  accomplish  ffis  purposes,  to  extend 
His  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  truth,  to  make 
His  character  revered  by  the  world. 

All  these  desires  are  native  to  the  soul,  or  are  di- 
rectly implanted  in  it  by  the  beneficent  energy  of 
God.  And  it  is  very  instructive  and  important  to  ob- 
serve— what  is  only  too  plain  to  admit  of  illustration 
— that  no  one  of  all  this  wide-reaching  circle  of  ap- 
propriate desires  can  be  gratified,  even  partially,  with- 
out patient  and  Adgorous  operation  on  our  part.  We 
cannot  have  personal  advancement  and  culture ;  we 
cannot  have  society,  with  influence  over  others,  and 
the  good  esteem  of  men;  we  cannot  promote  man's 
happiness,  or  God's  honor;  we  cannot  accomplish  one 
impulse  of  our  nature,  which  prompts  to  the  attain- 
ment of  such  special  goods ;  without  voluntary,  intel- 
ligent   and    continuous     Working.       By    this    Virtue 


188  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

comes;  not  that  secluded  and  cloistered  Virtue  which 
Milton  contemnedj  which  fears  the  heat  and  contest 
of  the  struggle,  and  slinks  out  of  the  race  because 
the  goal  is  too  far  off,  but  the  clear,  far-sighted,  mag- 
nanimous Virtue,  which  values  a  principle  above  all 
interests,  which  estimates  Truth  as  the  Mistress  of 
life,  and  is  ready  to  endure  for  it  as  well  as  to  en- 
deavour. *By  this  Happiness  comes.  It  cannot  be 
purchased  by  outward  wealth.  It  cannot  be  imported 
by  mansions  and  equipage.  It  comes  as  a  subtle 
perennial  fragrance,  that  rises  from  quick  and  vigorous 
faculties  when  they  have  been  pressed  against  resist- 
ance and  difficulty.  It  is  the  fine  warmth  that  inly 
pervades  and  rejuvenates  the  soul,  when  it  has  been 
exercised  in  the  gymnasium  of  effort.  And  every 
good  which  we  seek  to  accomplish  abroad  in  the 
world,  that  the  memory  and  effect  of  it  may  come 
back  to  reward  us,  must  likewise  be  born  of  the  he- 
roical  will,  accepting  and  realizing  in  a  strenuous  ac- 
tion the  high  ideal. 

God  impels  the  soul  to  work,  then,  in  the  use  of 
its  faculties  of  the  judgment  and  the  will,  with  re- 
markable precision  and  perfection  of  adjustment.  The 
instincts  which  prompt  to  this,  are  sunken  into  our 
nature,  as  deeply  and  indelibly  as  the  blue  into  the 
sea.  They  pervade  our  whole  life.  They  could  not 
be  eliminated,  except  by  an  equal   though  a  contrary 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   189 

exertion  of  the  power  which  has  formed  us.  They 
leave  us  no  alternative  but  efficient  operation,  or  in- 
ward unhappiness;  and  they  show  most  signally  the 
mind  and  the  heart  of  Him  who  has  prepared  the 
soul  for  this  good.  It  is  predestined  to  this,  by  the 
frame  of  its  being;  while  the  world  all  around  says 
practically  to  it,  '  These  golden  apples  of  thy  desire  are 
watched  by  the  Hesperides,  and  guarded  by  the  dragon. 
If  thou  wouldst  have  them,  thou  must  conquer  the  way 
to  them.  And  the  picture  of  that  battle,  as  of  Hercules 
with  Ladon,  shall  be  suspended  amid  the  stars !' 

As  the  clear  and  sensitive  organ  of  the  eye,  which 
holds  upon  its  tiny  lens  the  masses  of  far  stars  and^ 
the  mazes  of  their  movement,  was  evidently  made 
for  this  marvellous  function;  as  the  nerve  of  the 
ear,  which  takes  eloquence,  poetry,  wit,  applause,  the 
tone  of  affection,  the  crash  of  the  thunder-burst,  the 
lively  laugh  of  childish  glee,  and  communicates  each 
with  instant  fidelity  to  the  spirit  behind,  was  mani- 
festly formed  for  exactly  this  office ;  so,  just  as  clearly, 
the  personal  Soul,  with  its  judgment  and  its  will,  with 
its  deep-seated  instincts,  and  its  eager  desires,  with  its 
unrest  in  indolence,  and  its  thought  that  outruns  at- 
tainment every  instant,  was  made  to  realize  its  good 
by  working.  The  date-tree  in  the  desert  is  not  more 
precisely  pre-adjusted  to  its  office ! 

And  then  God  puts  it  on  the  sphere  for  such  work. 


190  THE     HUMAN     SOUL 


rV.  It  is  important  to  notice  fourthly,  that  the  soul, 
which  has  these  powers  and  instincts  native  within  it, 

is   so   RELATED    BY    ITS    MAKER    TO    THE    WORLD    AROUND   IT, 

AND  TO  OTHER  EQUAL  SOULS,  that  the  efficient  operation 
which  is  prompted  from  within  is  equally  and  always 
demanded  from  without.  It  meets  opportunity  and 
invitation  to  this,  the  moment  its  personal  forces  are 
developed ;  just  such  opportunity,  and  such  invitation, 
as  are  fitted  to  call  it  forth. 

The  fancy  of  the  child  represents  to  him  the  star 
which  shines  at  evening  on  the  front  of  the  heavens, 
as  an  orb  full  of  golden  and  luminous  beauty ;  where 
.crystal  seas,  in  beds  of  pearl,  with  musical  motion  float 
^  and  sway ;  where  every  mountain,  if  such  there  be  upon 
that  round  enamelled  surface,  sparkles  illustrious  as  a 
footstool  of  God,  while  each  serene  valley  spreads 
downward  its  slopes,  as  a  silver  chalice  filled  with  fra- 
grance and  dew ;  where  all  is  naturally  complete  and  re- 
warding, and  there  is  no  room  for  finite  work.  There 
enjoyment,  as  he  conceives  it,  is  the  necessary  con- 
dition of  vital  experience ;  and  the  whole  occupation 
is  contemplation  and  love.  But  certainly  not  such 
is  our  environment !  This  rough,  untamed,  dishev- 
elled Earth,  cries  out  for  work  on  every  hand. 
These  vehement  elements,  of  air  and  water,  demand 
to  be  wrestled  with  and  patiently  mastered,  by  the 
vigorous     soul,    in    order    that    they    may    adminis- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   191 

ter  to  our  happiness.  There  is  the  wax.  In  the 
soul  is  the  seal,  designed  to  impress  it.  There  are 
the  materials,  upon  which  and  with  which  the  spirit 
is  to  operate.  But  no  implements,  even,  are  given  it 
for  its  use.  It  must  forge  them,  as  it  wants  them. 
They  are  not  found  ready  fashioned  to  the  hand,  as 
ornamental  stones  are,  in  the  caverns  and  rock-rifts. 
They  must  be  conceived  by  our  skiU,  and  completed 
by  our  labor.  But  the  moment  we  begin,  all  is  ready 
for  our  progress.  All  has  clearly  been  prepared  by 
an  Infinite  Mind,  adjusting  its  relations  to  the  powers 
of  the  soul. 

For  ages  the  iron,  and  the  coal  with  which  to  fuse 
it,  have  been  silently  deposited,  side  by  side  in  the 
earth.  Between  strata  of  rock,  that  sustain  and  then 
cover  it,  the  fuel  has  been  stored  for  innumerable 
ages.  And  before  man  was  made,  and  sent  upon  the 
Earth,  all  these  were  thrown  up  by  internal  fires,  the 
rock-strata  broken,  and  the  different  metallic  and  min- 
eral substances  heaved  into  the  reach  of  his  pene- 
trating mines.  The  woods  are  made  to  cover  the 
earth,  to  grow  up  from  its  surface  in  perpendicular 
elevation,  and  continually  to  reproduce  themselves  as 
fast  as  they  are  cut,  that  there  may  be  room  for  the 
dwellings  of  man,  and  scope  for  his  industry,  and  yet 
an  unfailing  material  for  his  use.  The  fields  are 
spread   in    their  roughness  before    him,  that  he    may 


192  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

clothe  them  with  productions  if  he  will,  But  that  oth- 
erwise only  grasses  and  weeds  may  spring  from  them. 
The  ocean  is  stretched  between  its  boundaries,  to  be 
fathomed  and  crossed  by  his  enterprise  and  daring,  or 
else  to  remain '  to  him  a  terror  forever.  And  so  he  is 
left  to  accomplish  his  mission.  If  he  works,  all 
things  else  work  with  him.  With  complete  unanimity 
the  whole  series  of  natural  forces  and  elements  sur- 
rounds him  with  helpers. 

The  very  power  that  shows  itself  in  the  earthquake, 
as  has  lately  been  shown  in  a  very  suggestive  and 
thoughtful  little  treatise,  is  the  sub-terrene  furnace, 
sending  up  to  him  his  materials.  Cotton  and  flax  pre- 
sent their  fleecy  and  tangled  fibres,  to  be  wrought  into 
thread.  The  fire  which  frightens  most  animals  from 
it,  and  which  cannot  be  produced  by  them,  becomes 
the  splendid  attendant  of  man,  and  his  promptest 
servant.  The  atmosphere  itself  works  for  him  every 
hour;  giving  nourishment  to  his  plants;  preventing 
the  fruitfulness  of  the  soil  from  exhaustion.  Other 
planets  work  for  him,  keeping  ours  in  its  equipoise. 
Even  birds  are  his  ministers,  watching  over  vegetation ; 
consuming  its  despoilers,  and  distributing  its  germs. 
The  insects  work  with  him,  building  coral  and  slate,  and 
giving  him  their  purple,  their  lac-dye,  and  their  silk. 

And  Man,  with  the  help  of  all  these,  is  to  work, 
as   their  master  and   leader.      By  his    endeavor,  with 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   193 

the  blessing  of  God,  is  the  swamp  to  be  changed 
to  the  firm  and  fair  glebe;  the  forest  to  be  opened 
to  habitations  and  cities ;  the  ocean  to  be  made  a 
liquid  roadway  for  the  commerce  of  nations,  an  im- 
mense mediator  of  international  peace;  the  whole 
expanse  of  each  civilized  domain  to  be  studded  with 
homes  and  clustering  viEages ;  the  very  mountain- 
crest  to  be  made  to  shake  with  the  golden  banners 
of  the  wheat-field  on  it ;  and  the  beauteous  and  ma- 
jestic achievements  of  art  to  be  wrought  to  encircle 
the  earth  with  their  cestus; — until  this  scarred  and 
bloody  orb  which  was  silent  so  long,  unvisited  by 
souls,  which  has  been  ravaged  so  long  by  violence 
and  wars,  but  which  is  reserved  for  such  sublime 
destinies,  shall  be  prepared  for  the  dwelling  of  the 
Just;  shall  be  robed  and  made  ready  for  its  coming 
coronation  ! 

Thus  does  the  Material  world  invite  the  soul  to 
incessant  operation.  And  not  less  does  the  Spirit- 
ual, which  shows  a  singular  sympathy  with  this,  and 
matches  it  in  the  frequency  and  the  urgency  of  its 
demands.  Inequalities  of  condition,  between  those  of 
the  same  race ;  inequalities  of  races ;  the  different  de- 
grees of  culture  and  of  force  possessed  by  different 
nations  and  tribes ;  the  constant  tendencies  in  human 
nature  itself,  which  He  behind  oppression  and  error, 
scepticism  and  sorrow,  and  which  are  to  be  patiently 

13 


194  .  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

struggled  with  and  subdued;  the  occasions  of  phys- 
ical infirmity  and  want,  on  the  part  of  those  near  us ; 
peculiarities  of  temper,  in  the  household  or  the  neigh- 
borhood; disasters  experienced,  or  disasters  in  pros- 
pect ;  the  simple  diversities  in  character  and  attain- 
ment, where  no  inferiority  on  either  side  is  involved; 
the  very  presence,  indeed,  of  other  beings,  toward 
whom  our  affections  or  our  charity  is  due ; — all  these 
make  demand  on  our  voluntary  action.  We  are 
pressed  toward  this  by  interior  impulses.  We  are 
urgently  and  continually  called  upon  for  it,  by  our 
outward  relations.  God  not  only  has  fashioned  and 
furnished  the  soul  in  reference  to  it,  but  has  placed 
it  on  a  sphere  where  everything  incites  to  it.  And 
setting  its  constitution  in  the  light  of  these  rela- 
tions, that  takes  an  instant  and  signal  explica-' 
tion.  God  has  fitted  it  for  an  operation,  intelligent, 
and  voluntary,  as  vital  as  its  being,  as  noble  as  its 
powers,  and  as  wide  in  its  influence  as  its  connec- 
tions with  the  world. 

But  going  forward  still  further  in  this  view  of  the 
Soul  we  observe  yet  another  fact  which  shows  its 
adaptedness  to  useful  Operation ;  the  goodness,  the 
wisdom  and  the  power  of  Him  who  has  from  the  first 
prepared  it  for  such.     It  is: 

V.  That  it  has  command,  by  virtue  of  its  consti- 
tution,  OF  ALL  THE   FORCES  AND    INSTRUMENTS    WHICH    ARE 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       195 
NEEDFUL   FOR   EFFICIENT    AND    BENEFICENT    OPERATION,    either 

physical  or  spiritual.  They  become  its  recognized 
property  and  equipment,  as  fast  as  its  faculties  mature 
and  are  unfolded.  God  likens  it  again  to  His  own 
soul  in  this,  and  prepares  it  for  the  noblest  actions 
and  effects. 

The  Forces  which  the  soul  is  thus  authorized 
to  employ,  in  its  manifold  operations  on  the  physical 
world,  are  those  impalpable  but  inestimable  powers 
which  throng  and  press,  as  ordained  of  God,  amid 
and  throughout  the  natural  system.  Of  these  the  soul 
has  mastery  by  its  birthright.  The  Instruments  it 
may  use,  are  all  forms  of  invention,  all  mechanisms 
and  engines,  through  which  it  subordinates  these  to 
its   plans.     Consider   this   more  in  detail  : — 

The  primary  implements  of  impression  on  the  world 
are  the  members  and  organs  of  the  physical  frame; 
and  of  these  the  soul  has  the  absolute  ownership, 
over  them  it  asserts  supreme  authority,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  consciousness.  Whatever  then  is  fashioned 
by  itself  to  aid  these,  becomes  in  like  manner  its 
property  and  its  servant.  It  is  constituted  with  pow- 
ers, as  already  has  been  shown,  which  enable  it  to 
fashion  such  with  singular  ease,  and  in  marv*ellous  va- 
riety. The  types  of  such  mechanisms,  not  less  than 
the  images  of  all  forms  of  beauty  portrayed  by  the 
painter,   or  the  forethought   of  arguments   and   impas- 

fXTFITBrw. 


196  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

sioned  appeals,  lie  quickening  in  its  nature ;  and  it 
scatters  them  on  its  path,  as  its  faculties  are  devel- 
oped, and  as  general  civilization  carries  it  forward,  as 
the  bird  scatters  song  through  its  arrowy  flight.  They 
are  all  auxiliary  to  the  instruments  which  it  first 
wields,  the  organs  of  the  body;  and  being  produced 
by  it  are  entirely  its  own. 

The  fork,  the  knife,  the  graver,  the  spade,  they 
are  merely  steel  fingers,  iron  hands,  accumulating  and 
prolonging  the  energy  of  those  members.  The  rud- 
der which  the  hand  holds,  it  is  in  effect  that  hand 
itself,  enlarged,  and  shielded  from  the  wash  of  the 
waves.  The  telescope,  with  its  wondrous  space-pene- 
trating power,  the  microscope,  with  its  clear  and 
searching  lens,  in  which  seems  almost  an  image  of 
Omniscience,  are  yet  only  adjutants  and  servitors  to 
the  eye,  that  more  marvellous  instrument  which  no 
hand  can  fashion.  The  soul  of  man,  invisible  itself, 
controls  the  eye.  It  creates  the  telescope,  to  be  its 
assistant.  The  locomotive  steam-engine,  with  its  con- 
nected trains  of  cars,  whose  tread  is  like  an  earthquake 
traversing  the  surface,  whose  rush  outruns  in  noise 
and  power  the  plunge  of  the  cataract, — the  soul  has 
created  that  as  a  servant  to  the  body,  to  move  this 
on  its  errands,  and  to  carry  its  burdens.  The  steam- 
ship flashing  through  night  and  storm,  trampHng  the 
riotous  waves  beneath  it,  and  drowning  the  strife  and 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   197 

uproar  of  the  winds,  by  its  more  measured  and  peremp- 
tory stroke,  is  a  similar  instrument  sent  forth  on  the 
seas.  Each  began  in  a  thought.  Each  was  bom  of 
the  soul.  And  that  which  produced  them  has  the 
power  to  work  with  them,  for  any  effects. 

When  thus  we  gather  the  mechanical  arts  in  a  group 
before  us,  and  see  how  the  Soul  has  created  them  all 
— ^being  capacitated  for  this  by  its  native  constitution 
— ^we  see  their  true  meaning,  and  see  how  God  has 
equipped  it  for  action.  One  man  digs  the  earth  with 
his  rude  and  weak  shovel,  hewn  roughly  out  of 
wood  from  the  branch  of  a  tree ;  and  another  per- 
forms on  a  gigantic  scale  the  same  essential  mechan- 
ical operation,  constructing  carefully  his  iron  apparatus, 
making  every  part  contribute  strength  to  every  other, 
combining  all  in  a  common  operation,  putting  the 
power  of  steam  behind  them,  and  compelling  one  engine 
to  do  the  work  of  a  thousand  arms  : — ^in  the  one  case 
a  rude  soul,  in  the  other  a  developed  and  cultivated 
mind,  is  asserting  its  supremacy  over  outward  imple- 
ments. The  Bengalese  weaves  with  his  rollers  and 
treddles  on  the  edge  of  the  jungle,  as  his  fathers  did 
before  him  ages  ago,  and  slowly  and  painfully  the 
poor  and  coarse  fabric  comes  forth  from  his  loom,  a 
very  pariah  among  products;  and  the  man  of  our 
times,  and  of  our  civilization,  to  whom  Arkwright  and 
Watt,  and  Whitney  have  ministered,  sets  in  motion  a 


198  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

mechanism  with  a  touch  of  his  hand,  which  spins 
and  weaves  with  unwearied  activity,  in  his  presence 
or  his  absence,  by  night  or  by  day,  unaffected  by  cli- 
mate, unaffected  by  seasons,  rolling  forth  like  waves 
of  damascened  silver  the  beautiful  stuffs  which  our 
luxury  demands; — and  yet  in  each  case,  the  Soul 
behind  is  the  parent  of  the  implement,  has  devised 
and  has  built  it,  and  now  uses  it  as  its  own.  And 
its  power  to  do  this  has  been  given  it  of  God. 

The  real  marvel  lies  at  that  point  where  it  touches 
and  dominates  the  outward.  How  it  plans  the  engine, 
is  not  so  unsearchable  as  how  it  directs  the  muscle 
of  the  arm.  But  God  has  made  it  capable  of  both. 
He  so  has  organized  it,  in  his  frame  of  its  being, 
that  it  has  every  organ  and  member  of  the  body  its 
ready  minister.  And  this  being  the  fact,  all  imple- 
ments and  apparatus  auxiliary  to  these,  come  naturally 
in  their  time,  as  thought  conceives  and  science  plans 
them,  and  as  human  labor  erects  and  completes  them. 
And  all,  as  they  come,  are  the  property  of  the  Soul. 
The  power  to  pick  up,  or  the  power  to  plan,  one 
movable  type;  there  is  the  germ.  And  that  being 
given,  the  framing  of  the  press,  which  puts  a  lever 
beneath  the  world  to  lift  it  nearer  the  throne  of  God, 
is  not  amazing.  The  power  to  lift,  with  intelligent 
effort,  a  drop  of  water ;  there  is  the  mystery.  But 
that  being   granted,  the  power  to  frame  and  to  build 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       199 

the  ship,  to  launch  it  on  the  seas,  and  hold  it  steady 
and  even  on  its  way  while  the  winds  whirl  against 
it, — ^this  comes  with  the  other.  An  absolute  author- 
ity  over  Instruments  of  action,  is  thus  the  native 
prerogative  of  the  soul.  God  has  given  it  lordship 
and  dominion  over  such,  by  its  regal  constitution. 

But  these  are  not  the  real  Forces  which  it  com- 
mands, and  with  which  it  may  work.  Those  are  the 
powers,  too  great  for  speech,  which  encompass  us  in 
the  creation,  and  which  God  puts  ever  at  the  bidding 
of  the  soul.  The  mechanisms  are  only  the  gloves 
with  which  to  grasp  those;  the  flexible  ring-armor  in 
which  to  shield  the  body  from  their  contact,  while 
the  spirit  employs  such  prodigious  assistants. 

Light,  is  one  of  these.  With  it  the  soul  may  oper- 
ate on  the  world,  almost  at  its  will.  With  it  it  does 
operate,  in  most  various  methods.  Accumulating  and 
concentering  it,  with  an  easy  machinery,  it  makes  it 
nurse  plants  to  an  extraordinary  vigor.  It  prints  shad- 
ows and  lights  with  it,  proportions  and  expressions, 
on  the  impassive  steel.  It  even  inflames  the  ignit- 
ible  wood  with  it,  and  so  compels  it  to  convey  to 
us  fire  in  its  innocuous  and  palpitating  hand.  Being 
fettered  by  the  soul,  and  made  to  outstay  the  sun 
which  is  its  source,  it  'illuminates  cities  when  the 
night  darkens  over  them,  and  waves  its  tiny  flaming 
scimeter   at  the  door   of  each   Eden   of  domestic  feli- 


200  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

city.  When  impurities  have  accumulated,  and  have 
been  festering  for  years,  making  the  crowded  haunts 
of  men  the  centres  of  pestilence  and  the  seminaries 
of  death,  man  takes  down  the  casements,  and  sweeps 
the  rooms  with  its  silent  pencils.  He  exhales  into 
the  air  by  its  defecating  power  the  seeds  of  miasma, 
and  brings  the  hue  of  health  again  on  the  fevered 
and  glaring  face  of  pain. 

He  makes  the  Light  work  for  him,  wherever  he 
proceeds  in  the  mastery  of  the  earth;  to  cleanse  the 
morass;  to  render  forests  inhabitable  where  a  falling 
vegetation,  decaying  for  ages,  would  otherwise  lie  under 
each  prostrate  trunk  like  a  scorpion  in  its  hole.  He 
makes  the  Light  work  for  him,  to  reveal  every 
beauty  which  his  thought  has  devised ;  to  cast  every 
shadow  which  enriches  his  architecture ;  to  open  his 
route  to  all  discovery.  He  marries  with  it  gases, 
which  in  darkness  will  not  combine.  He  bleaches  with 
it  stuffs,  or  delicately  colors  them.  He  carries  it  with 
him  to  the  depths  of  the  earth,  where  the  sapphire 
sparkles  as  an  eye  in  the  rock,  where  the  gold 
gleams  back  its  answering  welcome  to  the  ray  which 
accosts  it.  He  carries  it  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  and  lays  open  before  it  the  secret  wonders  of 
coral-reef  and  cavern,  the  mysteries  of  the  sea-bed, 
the  terrors  of  the  wreck.  He  is  not  content  to  em- 
ploy it  in  its  integrity ;  but  even  untwists  its  lumin- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   201 

ous  strand,  takes  the  violet  from  the  green,  and  the 
orange  from  the  red,  and  makes  each  separate  fila- 
ment of  the  ray  that  looked  indivisible,  paint  for 
him,  enamel  for  him,  or  confess  its  incapacity. — 
This  is  one  of  his  forces. 

Electricity  is  another.  By  it  he  decomposes 
aerial  gases.  By  it  he  resolves  the  most  difficult 
substances,  making  its  searching  analysis  discover  the 
invisible  points  and  planes  of  union  in  what  were 
esteemed  the  simple  forms  of  matter.  By  it  he  pro- 
duces a  light  more  intense  than  has  heretofore  been 
realized  by  any  other  means  in  the  compass  of  science, 
a  globule  of  which  shall  irradiate  a  square.  By  it 
he  transfers  and  multiplies  engravings ;  plates  baser 
metals  with  silver  or  with  gold ;  Hfts  heavy  weights ; 
combines  metals  and  minerals  before  uncompounded ; 
makes  substances  oppositely  electrized  dance  around 
him,  like  resuscitated  Bacchantse.  By  it  he  minis- 
ters to  those  who  are  diseased ;  to  the  nervously 
irritable ;  to  the  asthmatic,  the  dyspeptic,  the  para- 
lytic, and  the  asphyxied.  By  it  he  sends  messages 
over  a  continent  with  a  speed  that  outruns  the  sun 
many  hours,  and  makes  the  tidings  familiar  in  regions 
a  thousand  miles  from  him,  before  the  moment  at  which 
they  transpired  has  there  been  reached.  By  it  he 
designs  to  annihilate  the  ocean  as  a  barrier  of  intel- 
ligence, a  non-conductor  of  ideas  ;  to  make  continents 


202  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

indivisible,  and  weave  nations  into  one,  in  the  instant 
and  incessant  reciprocities  of  thought ! 

Not  a  century  has  passed  since  Franklin  first  drew  the 
Lightning  from  the  skies ;  and  yet  already  man  prints 
with  it,  paints  with  it,  writes  with  it,  engraves  with  it, 
talks  with  it,  cures  with  it,  and  is  ever  finding  out 
new  uses  for  its  strength.  The  cunning  Hermes  has 
himself  come  to  earth,  to  run  on  errands  for  men,  and 
no  more  for  the  gods.  His  travelling  rod,  enwreathed 
with  serpents,  is  now  a  wire,  transmitting  thoughts. 
His  golden  sandals  are  sparks  of  lightning ;  and  he 
forwards  our  commerce,  as  he  never  could  the'  ancient. 

So  the  Water  and  the  Wind  are  both  servants 
of  the  Soul,  made  so  by  God's  constitution  of  its 
life.  It  is  ordained  to  have  mastery  over  them. 
There  is  a  real  sublimity  in  the  ease  and  the  persist- 
ency with  which  it  uses  both.  It  makes  them  drive 
the  wheels  of  factories;  grind  grain,  spin,  weave,  and 
card  the  wool ;  print,  press,  stamp,  lift,  carry  bur- 
dens, propel  ships,  forge  cannon,  drill  rocks,  and 
take  the  place  at  a  thousand  points,  with  a  might 
far  greater,  and  a  continuance  more  prolonged,  of  the 
muscle  of  the  body.  The  Wind  the  soul  makes  its 
airy  musician,  to  fill  the  house  with  -^olian  melodies  ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  it  catches  it  on  vans  which  do 
for  man  what  a  hundred  working  oxen  could  not. 
It  is   at   once   his   mechanic   and    his    minstrel.      The 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   203 

Water  he  makes  do  every  tiling  but  think !  He  is 
lord  of  the  globe;  and  over  no  part  of  it  does  he 
assert  a   more   absolute  supremacy. 

Gravitation  itself,  which  binds  man,  works  for 
him;  and  that  in  no  fancy  or  figure  of  speech,  but 
with  a  patient  continuance  of  operation  which  no 
more  bright  but  transient  force  can  ever  rival.  It  is 
the  great  muscle  in  that  compact  of  powers,  of  which 
Light  is  the  eye,  and  the  Lightning  the  nerve.  It 
holds  up  and  guards  the  structures  he  rears,  with 
imperishable  cement.  He  cannot  himself  hold  his  arm 
out  unbent,  though  with  nothing  upon  it,  for  a  half 
hour  together.  But  stone  upon  stone  he  piles  his 
arches,  and  locks  them  together  with  the  key-stone 
at  the  top,  and  then  Gravitation,  the  meek  minister 
of  his  will,  will  hold  them  there  thousands  of  years 
without  failing.  The  traveller  to  Rome  passes  now 
through  the  gateways  through  which  Alaric  rode,  four- 
teen centuries  ago.  The  Claudian  aqueduct  stiE  rears 
its  great  masses,  where  war  has  not  broken  it,  across 
the  Campagna.  And  the  arch  of  Titus  shows  now 
on  its  piers  the  table  and  the  trumpets,  the  silver 
horns  and  the  golden  candlesticks,  which  were  ravaged 
from  the  temple,  as  when  the  Jews  first  shuddered 
before  it.  The  pyramids,  flame-shaped  as  their  name 
pictures  them,  date  back  to  the  ages  that  followed  the 
Deluge ;  and  this  unwearied  and .  silent  power,  to  which 


204  THEHUMANSOUL, 

they  were  entrusted,  makes  them  wonders  to  this 
day,  where   they  sentinel  the   desert. 

Over  all  these  mighty  material  powers,  the  Soul  for 
its  uses  has  dominion,  by  its  birthright.  They  smite 
us  now  and  then  into  instant  destruction  to  show  us 
how  great  they  are,  when  we  cease  to  use  them  wisely. 
But  they  operate  for  us,  with  a  force  as  unwearied 
and  almost  as  omnipresent  as  the  Divine  Mind  it- 
self, so  long  as  we  govern  them.  And  in  giving  it 
the  power  to  use  these  forces,  which  He  created 
and  energized  at  the  beginning, — ^in  giving  it  the  ab- 
solute mastery  over  Instruments,  and  the  power  to  pro- 
duce them,  wherewith  to  grasp  and  subordinate  these 
forces, — God  fits  the  soul  to  operate  with  mighty  ef- 
ficiency on  the  World.  Its  highest  desire  can  seek  no 
force  more  grand  than  these.  Its  highest  thought 
can  conceive  none  superior.  Its  equipment  for  work- 
ing becomes  only  less  than  that  of  its  Creator ! 

But  this  is  not  the  ultimate  or  the  main  department 
in  which  it  is  to  work.  It  is  to  operate  as  well  on  the 
Spiritual  system,  of  which  it  is  a  part.  And  for 
this  it  has  an  equivalent  command  of  all  the*  neces- 
sary Forces  and  Instruments. 

The  Forces  here  are  Truth,  and  Righteousness ; 
the  representation  of  what  is,  in  existence ;  and  of 
what  is  just  and  appropriate,  in  conduct.  The  soul 
has  power,   as   has   previously  been  shown,  to   appro- 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   205 

hend  and  express  these,  and  with  them  it  may  oper- 
ate on  all  whom  it  reaches.  Complete  and  primeval, 
in  their  nature  and  their  authority,  they  appeal  to 
the  Race.  The  judgment  and  the  conscience,  all  the 
moral  and  rational  faculties  of  man,  must  render 
them  their  response.  Nothing  else  can  take  the  place 
of  them,  in  their  proper  sphere,  any  more  than  of 
Gravitation  in  its  department.  They  are  purer  than 
Light,  and  mightier  than  Lightning,  and  more  unfail- 
ing than  the  atmosphere  which  embosoms  us. 

And  the  Instruments  with  which  one  may  wield 
these  Forces,  they  are  among  the  things  most  august 
on  the  earth ;  and  yet  they  are  produced  spontane- 
ously by  the  soul,  and  are  ever  its  possession.  It 
was  created  with  powers  prepared  to  produce  them ; 
and  has  ownership  of  them  by  virtue  of  its  nature. 

Take  Language,  for  example,  and  the  Literatures 
which  it  forms.  These  are  among  man's  chiefest  Instru- 
ments ;  and  yet  so  familiar  that  we  hardly  remember, 
until  it  is  shown  to  us,  how  marvellous  they  are. 
The  power  of  Language, — of  embodying  thought  in 
articulate  speech,  and  then  of  presenting  it  through 
written  terms — in  respect  of  its  earliest  and  sub- 
tlest developement,  has  a  mystery  in  it;  like  every 
thing  else  where  the  human  and  the  Divine  are 
brought  into  contact.  It  is  quite  impossible,  with  any 
analysis,  to  interpret  fully  the  growth  of  any  tongue. 


206  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

We  can  only  say  that  the  Soul  produces  it,  by  a  pro- 
cess so  instant  and  so  universal  as  to  show  it  espe- 
cially prepared  for  the  work. — It  has  sometimes  been 
imagined  that  the  terms  and  the  grammatical  forms 
of  Language  were  an  immediate  gift,  by  supernatural 
revelation,  from  God  to  man.  This  clearly  is  not  a 
sufficient  explanation ;  for  even  if  true  it  would  eclair- 
icise  but  one  language,  and  that  the  original,  the 
language  of  Eden ;  and  the  languages  of  the  race, 
now  split  and  spHntered  into  such  diverse  dialects, 
would  remain  to  be  accounted  for. 

The  truth,  rather,  may  be  thus  stated  :  that  God 
has  so  formed  the  Human  Soul  that  by  its  constitu- 
tion it  struggles  toward  speech ;  it  cannot  rest  until 
it  attains  that ;  and  it  comes  at  last,  in  the  natural 
developement  of  its  innate  force,  to  realize  and  erect 
this  vehicle  of  thought.  At  first,  undoubtedly,  cer- 
tain sounds  were  appropriated  to  indicate  certain 
sensible  objects,  and  to  distinguish  them  from  others; 
as,  a  chair,  or  a  bench ;  a  horse,  or  a  tree ;  the  moon 
in  the  sky,  or  the  water  on  the  beach.  These  sounds 
are  arbitrary,  having  no  esoteric  fitnesses  to  their  ob- 
jects, yet  they  become  permanently  associated  with 
them.  Then  internal  states  are  represented  by  such 
sounds,  used  figuratively,  as  we  say,  with  a  super- 
induced and  secondary  significance.  The  positions 
of  such  objects  towards  each  other,  and   towards   the 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   207 

speaker,  demand  and  secure  certain  terms  to  express 
them.  And  gradually,  from  these  their  relations  and 
inter-action,  as  perceived  by  the  eye  and  represented 
in  sound,  there  grow  up  all  forms  of  grammatical  ar- 
rangement, until  the  Language  is  prepared  continu- 
ously to  proceed,  with  the  further  developement  and 
cultivation  of  a  people,  toward  entire,  completeness. 
It  comes  at  last  to  furnish  an  equivalent  for  every 
object  ascertained  to  exist,  in  nature  or  in  thought; 
to  furnish  representatives  of  the  relations  of  these,  and 
of  aU  the  modes  in  which  they  limit  or  influence  each 
other. 

So  simple  and  obvious — ^the  power  being  first  given 
of  making  a  wave  of  the  air  carry  a  thought,  of 
charging  its  motion  with  the  utterance  of  ideas — is 
the  process  of  the  formation  of  any  most  finished 
and  powerful  tongue,  the  developement  of  which  de- 
clares and  measures  a  civilization,  and  the  relics  of 
which  remain  through  the  ages,  outlasting  temples, 
and  perpetuating  thought.  But  how  marvellous  this 
essential  faculty!  What  a  light  does  it  shed  on  the 
Wisdom  that  planned,  on  the  kindly  and  infinite 
Power  that  framed,  our  mysterious  constitution!  and 
that  made  the  earth,  which  stands  around  us,  such  a 
mirror  of  the  soul,  suggesting  to  it  the  elements  of 
self-representation  ! — No  brute  has  any  such  power  of 
Language.      Some  tribes  of  animals   have  the  faculty 


208 

of  designating  by  particular  sounds  particular  objects. 
All  animals,  almost,  have  the  power  of  emitting  some 
sound  from  some  organ,  associated  usually  with  fear  or 
with  pleasure.  But  none  has  this  faculty  of  intellect- 
ual expression.  No  one  can  affix  names  to  things, 
and  then  abstract  the  relations  these  sustain,  and  ap- 
ply them  to  fiie  expression,  and  illustrate  by  them 
the  mutual  relations,  of  spiritual  forces,  whether  as 
connected  in  the  series  of  experience  or  in  logical 
catenation.  Herein  is  the  very  omnipotence  of  God, 
revealed  in  our  structure !  Herein  is  His  Wisdom, 
preparing  the  soul  for  a  work  not  physical  only,  but 
spiritual ;  a  work  transcendent  in  its  nature,  and 
wonderfully  searching  and  far-reaching  in  its  influ- 
ence ! 

Compare  the  golden  oriole,  swinging  in  the  sun- 
shine, and  filling  the  house  with  flashing  melodies, 
with  the  infant,  moaning  in  his  as  yet  inarticulate 
speech,  that  lies  beneath !  The  bird  was  made  for 
enjoyment  first;  for  work,  subordinately.  The  infant 
was  created  for  an  enjoyment  to  be  realized  through 
fervent  operation.  The  bird  has  a  beauty  that  reflects 
the  very  beauty  of  the  Mind  which  created  him. 
The  gloss  upon  his  breast,  and  the  brilHance  on  his 
wings,  were  put  there  by  God's  pencil.  His  gushing 
song  warbles  a  tribute  to  Him  who  gave  him  power 
to    sing.      But   the    child   has    a   struggling    capacity 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   209 

within  him,  as  much  grander  than  this,  as  the  spir- 
itual and  Divine  are  always  grander  than  the  phys- 
ical. He  hath  in  his  being  the  germs  of  Speech. 
And  speech  can  represent  the  most  delicate  feeling. 
It  can  set  forth  the  mightiest  process  of  thought. 
It  can  furnish  an  image  for  all  that  is  conceived.  It 
can  take  up  and  interpret  the  very  thoughts  of 
the  Infinite,  translating  them  into  language  for  the 
immortals  to  hear.  God  himself  hath  put  eminent 
honor  upon  speech;  using  it  as  the  vehicle  of  his 
highest  inspirations ;  creating  the  worlds,  we  are  told, 
^by  a  word.'  In  it,  the  regal  soul  within  asserts  its 
absolute  dominion  over  matter,  causing  the  palpable 
pulses  of  the  air,  set  in  motion  by  the  tongue,  to 
carry  its  thought;  transfiguring  them,  with  a  spiritual 
glory.  More  majestic  than  his  palaces,  than  his  con- 
quests of  realms,  than  all  his  apparatus  of  material 
helps,  is  this  Speech  of  man;  the  prerogative  of  the 
soul,  and  universal  with  the  Race. 

What  capacity  does  it  give  for  the  largest  opera- 
tion !  Remember  that  poems  are  but  speech  in  cer- 
tain forms ;  where  the  impulse  of  a  generous  genius 
within  has  made  all  words  its  '  airy  servitors,'  has  ar- 
ranged them  as  by  magic  in  ever-new  movement  and 
musical  combination,  and  has  forced  into  them  its  pa- 
thos, wit,  and  intellectual  fire.  Remember  that  Elo-. 
quence.     Philosophy,    Legislation,     Science,     Religion, 


210  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

History,  take  Language  as  their  instrument.  They 
could  not  exist  among  men  without  this.  Through  this 
they  gain  power  to  mould  the  Race  1  The  thought  that 
was  spoken  by  Plato's  lips,  which  bees  from  Hybla 
were  hardly  fabled  to  have  touched,  still  lives  for  us, 
and  shall  never  die.  The  progress  of  the  nations  ac- 
cepts and  incorporates  it,  and  will  carry  it  forward 
till  the  globe  is  dissolved.  The  dialogues  of  Socrates, 
the  arguments  and  appeals  of  Roman  and  Greek  ora- 
tors, all  sermons  and  treatises  of  great  preachers  and 
writers,  the  thought  that  floated  calmly  into  the  mind 
of  the  meditative,  the  conviction  that  was  wrought  out 
by  a  terrible  experience,  the  knowledge  that  was  gath- 
ered through  patient  years,  the  fancy  that  flashed  on 
radiant  wing  before  the  poet, — all  these  survive, 
and  they  still  aflect  us.  Those  who  ages  ago  were 
buried  in  Greek  urns,  or  laid  in  Jewish  or  Christian 
sepulchres,  still  sit  by  our  firesides,  and  recite  to  us 
their  thought.  All  lands  are  united,  the  oceans  are 
bridged,  the  centuries  sing  in  concord  as  they  pass, 
the  unity  of  the  Race  is  made  a  reality,  the  earth 
is  allied  with  superior  realms,  through  this  mystery 
of  Language  !  It  gives  the  soul  the  power  to  work  on 
minds,  not  bodies ;  on  nations,  not  mountains ;  on 
every  Land,  and  every  Time  !  It  makes  it  a  majes- 
tic co-operator  with  God! 

Yet  this    is    but    one    of   the    Instruments    of  the 


EQUIPPED    FOR    BENEFICENT    OPERATION.       211 

soul,  \yhereby  it  may  operate  on  the  Spiritual  world. 
Music  is  another;  in  some  respects  even  mightier 
than  the  former.  Words  sometimes  deceive,  and  they 
vary  with  the  ages.  But  a  musical  tone  abides  for- 
ever, a  mathematical  unity.  It  hath  ubiquity.  It 
speaks  more  piercingly,  too,  than  the  word ;  as  any 
one  knows  who  has  heard  a  child  cry.  The  soul, 
therefore,  which  hath  mastery  over  musical  tones,  may 
use  them  on  its  errands  with  a  splendid  supremacy 
it  cannot  claim  over  Language.  It  catches  new  im- 
pulse, the  while  it  sings.  The  music,  as  a  subtle  and 
spiritual  minister,  intensifies  the  feeling,  while  it  bears 
this  abroad  on  swiftest  wings.  There  are  some  of  its 
compositions,  therefore,  wherein  the  whole  life-force,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  composer,  his  aroused  personality, 
exalted  by  the  vision  of  that  which  is  Supreme, 
seems  to  pour  itself  forth  with  immediate  fulness. 
With  perfect  range,  it  has  perfect  exactness  and  fit- 
ness in  its  mechanism.  And  so,  with  an  energy  well- 
nigh  necromantic,  it  utters  itself  to  others ;  till, 

"Lifts  the  Eternal  Shadow, 
The  silence  bursts  apart, 
And  the  SouPs  boundless  Future 
Is  present  in  the  heart!" 

The   power  to  use  this,  is   not  universal,  as  is  the 
power  over   Language.     But  as  a  special  gift,  commu- 


212  •  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

nicated  to  some,  it  shows  of  how  much  the  Soul 
is  capable ;  for  what  mighty  operation  God  has  or- 
dained it. 

And  even  this  is  but  one  of  the  harmonized  arts 
over  .which  man  has  dominion  as  his  Instruments. 
What  this  cannot  do,  that  Sculpture  may;  with  its 
peerless  dignity,  its  severe  and  pure  grace,  or  its 
immortal  agony  that  seems  frozen  into  the  rock. 
What  neither  can  do,  that  Architecture  may;  making 
each  aspiring  pile  a  throne,  whose  empire  outlasts 
kings  and  peoples.  Even  Government,  with  its  Laws, 
which  are  or  which  should  be  expressions  of  Justice, 
and  witnesses  of  Truth, — is  but  another  mechanism  for 
the  mind  to  create  and  then  to  employ ;  and  Religion 
is  the  highest  of  all  in  the  series,  expressing  the  ut- 
most attainment  of  the  soul,  or  coming  to  us  directly 
from  the  mind  of  the  Most  High ;  with  its  doctrines 
and  precepts,  its  instituted  ministries,  its  recurring 
assemblies,  its  rites  and  its  missions,  and  its  perma- 
nent structures. 

ALL  these  are  Instruments,  whereby  the  soul,  pos- 
sessing innately  the  power  to  use  them,  may  operate 
widely  on  the  Spiritual  world,  may  spread  the  forces 
of  Righteousness  and  Truth,  and  thus  may  realize  its 
highest  end  !  God  has  fitted  it  for  this  with  an  in- 
finite skill,  with  a  boundless  and  perfectly  immeasur- 
able power,  before  which  we  can  but  bow  and  praise  ! 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   213 

He  has  fitted  it  especially  for  Virtuous  Operation; 
not  only  giving  it  that  equipment  of  faculty  by  which 
it  becomes  capable,  as  was  shown  in  the  last  Lec- 
ture, of  realizing  Virtue,  and  of  impressing  this  quality 
on  its  conduct,  but  urging  it  towards  this  with  con- 
stant and  central,  although  silent  impulsions.  He 
makes  its  own  frame.  He  makes  the  whole  course  of 
human  experience,  a  perpetual  admonition  to  Virtuous, 
as  distinguished  from  selfish  and  base  action.  He 
forbids  it  to  attain  the  true  goods  which  it  seeks, 
except  through  this. 

The  path  of  the  ambition,  which  uses  these  won- 
drous forces  and  instruments  for  personal  ends,  is  like 
the  ascent  of  a  mountain.  There  are  brooks  at  the 
base,  and  swarded  meadows ;  the  cool  recesses,  for 
quiet  repose ;  the  ample  domain,  for  fruitful  labor. 
There  is  shelter  from  the  storm,  and  a  covert  from 
the  heat;  and  in  the  calm  and  leafy  aisles  the  in- 
sects murmur,  and  the  wild-birds  sing.  But  as  one 
ascends,  step  after  step,  with  flushing  cheek  and  pant- 
ing breast,  the  way  is  more  rocky,  and  the  scenery 
is  more  barren ;  the  flowers  of  the  valley  pass  away 
and  are  lost ;  the  streams  plunge  down  with  hoarser 
clamor;  the  trees  are  no  more  fruit-producing.  And 
when  the  summit  is  reached  at  last,  rocky  and  icy, 
the  adventurer  pauses,  bereaved  of  companionship  by 
his  very  success,  inhahng  an   air  that  tingles  on  his 


214  THEHUMANSOUL, 

veins,  an  enforced  anchoret  because  of  his  elevation, 
lifted  up  to  isolation  by  his  superlative  selfishness ; 
without  reward,  and  without  further  hope  !  So  expe- 
rience demonstrates.  So  our  nature  predicts.  And 
History  lifts  her  solemn  witnesses,  unhappy  and  soli- 
tary on  their  topmost  attainments,  to  give  warning  of 
the  fact. 

The  man  who  will  heed,  then,  the  lessons  within 
him,  and  read  aright  the  instructions  from  without, 
who  will  use  in  selecting  and  pursuing  his  course  the 
eminent  faculties  with  which  he  is  endowed,  and  will 
let  the  fine  instincts  implanted  in  his  being  decide 
his  career,  will  need  no  other  preparation  or  impulsion 
to  make  his  Operation  truly  Beneficent !  The  out- 
ward circumstances  which  meet  him  in  life,  will  at- 
tract him  from  this.  His  inward  dispositions  will 
incline  him  to  indulgence.  But  God  has  so  made 
him  that  he  never  can  be  satisfied,  till  his  nature  is 
changed  or  his  faculties  obliterated,  in  any  thing  else 
than  a  Virtuous  career. — Run  your  hand  up  the  stalk 
of  a  vigorous  shrub,  every  branchlet  and  twig  aspir- 
ing toward  the  skies,  and  all  moves  easily,  without 
effort  or  pain.  No  branch  is  dissevered  from  the 
stock  that  supports  it.  No  leaf  is  disturbed  on  its 
airy  pedestal.  But  run  your  hand  downward,  against 
all  the  tendencies  inherent  in  that  growth ; — ^you  may 
bring  it  to  the  ground,  but  tender  twigs  are  snapped 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   215 

before  it,  and  leaves  and  blossoms  are  brushed  away 
by  the  violating  contact. 

And  so  in  the  nature  and  frame  of  the  Soul,  which 
God  hath  created.  The  upward  is  the  true  method. 
K  one's  action  corresponds  with  the  tendency  of  his 
being,  as  God  has  ordained  this,  it  is  easy  and  beau- 
tiful. If  it  tends  strongly  earthward,  it  may  press 
successfully  against  the  ethereal  resistances  that  meet 
it ;  but  graceful  thoughts  will  drop  before  it,  like 
leaves  untimely  shaken  down,  and  delicate  sensibihties 
will  be  broken  in  the  movement,  and  bleed  inwardly  at 
the  rupture.  It  is  written  in  our  own  hieroglyphic  con- 
stitution, as  it  is  in  experience,  as  it  is  in  the  Scrip- 
tures,, that  the  way  of  Purity,  and  of  Heavenly  Wis- 
dom, is  the  only  sure  way  of  pleasantness  and  peace  ! 

With  what  wonderful  perfection,  then,  and  finish  of 
adjustment,  has  God  framed  the  Soul  for  Beneficent 
Operation !  Can  there  be  any  other  exhibition  of  His 
character,  any  other  demonstration  of  His  infinite  en- 
ergy, more  remarkable  than  this,  when  we  consider  it  ? 
This  kingly  soul  is  all  His  work !  It  puts  forth 
whatever  of  force  is  required,  because  He  so  framed 
it.  It  subordinates  to  itself  aU  auxiliary  agencies, 
because  he  endowed  it  for  just  this  office.  And  it 
forever  stands  back  of  all,  giving  shape  to  enterprise, 
giving  impulse  to  discovery,  giving  method  and  effect 
to  aU   endeavor,  because  it  is  the  personal  represent- 


216 

ative  of  Him  who  works  unseen,  in  incessant  opera- 
tion, throughout  all  worlds !  In  its  intangible  and 
invisible  faculties,  more  impalpable  than  perfume, 
more  imponderable  than  light,  it  holds  the  seeds  of 
'  cities  and  governments,  of  institutes  of  learning,  of 
great  structures  of  charity !  By  these  are  made  to 
ride  forth  navies,  curbing  the  seas  as  Canute  could 
not.  From  these  flow  arts,  legislations,  literatures, 
the  whole  immense  fabric  of  Society  on  the  Earth. 
It  wears  as  its  mantle,  this  mighty  Soul,  all  that  man 
has  accomplished ;  all  that  visioned  and  high  imagin- 
ations have  conceived ;  tragedy,  poetry,  eloquence, 
philosophy,  war,  sciences,  governments  ;  the  empires 
that  have  arisen,  the  reforms  that  have  changed,  the 
revolutions  that  have  shaken  them;  all  trophies  of 
enterprise,  and  aU  triumphs  of  discovery  !  All  these 
are  embossed,  as  its  magnificent  decorations,  on  the  robe 
of  this  spirit,  as  it  marches  through  Time  ! 

I  think  we  need  no  other  proof  of  the  divinity  of 
its  origin,  or  the  grandeur  of  its  powers  !  I  think 
we  need  no  other  demonstration  of  the  wisdom,  the 
goodness,  and  the  infinite  might,  of  Him  who  cre- 
ated it !  We  admire  the  cathedral,  where  every  art 
has  found  its  shrine;  where  the  very  apotheosis  of 
the  tastes  and  of  the  senses  seems  fitly  celebrated. 
How  marvellous,  then,  that  Mind  on  high  which  formed 
the  intelligence,  subordinate  to  itself,  one  specimen  of 


EQUIPPED  FOR  BENEFICENT  OPERATION.   217 

whose  products  is  here  shown  to  us  !  We  are  awed 
and  amazed,  as  the  students  of  Literature,  at  the 
copiousness  and  breadth  of  learning  and  of  thought, 
the  splendor  of  fancy,  the  mental  retentiveness  en- 
compassing all  knowledge,  which  there  accost  us. 
Conceive  then  the  scope,  the  boundless  magnificence, 
of  that  underived  and  eternal  Intelligence  which  sends 
from  its  unwasted  sun  the  power's  that  are  shown  in 
this  affluent  array !  We  revere  the  great  action  of 
magnanimity  and  courage,  which  makes  the  nations 
pause  and  wonder,  which  founds  an  epoch  in  His- 
tory, as  if  a  Divine  Man  had  descended  to  the  earth. 
Remember  then  the  grandeur  and  the  power  of  His 
Soul,  before  whom  this  act  with  all  its  sublimity  is 
only  one  work,  appropriate  in  its  kind,  of  the  creature 
whom  He  formed  for  expressly  such  works  ! 

Consider  the  Soul,  so  wonderful  and  fearful;  so 
full  of  life,  so  capable  of  action;  creating  implements 
by  its  free  motion;  controlling  forces  which  it  cannot 
comprehend ;  selecting  ends,  subduing  obstacles ;  carv- 
ing the  Earth  into  the  likeness  of  its  thought;  giv- 
ing that  thought  perpetual  spread  among  the  equal 
souls  of  others  : — consider  the  Soul,  more  marvellous 
than  the  stars,  more  lofty  in  its  orbit,  and  larger  in 
its  influence : — and  say  if  He  who  planned  and  made 
it,  hath  not  shown  in  it  a  Wisdom  like  the  azure, 
unlimited  and  pure;  a  Power  like  the   laws  which  fill 


218  THE     HUMAN     SOUL. 

that  azure,  silent  and  calm,  but  perfect  in  its  scope; 
a  Goodness  and  a  Kindness  that  smile  across  these, 
as  light  falls  beaming  through  the  sky !  To  such  an 
one  our  homage  is  aU  due  !  Of  such  an  one  let  us 
be  each  the  reverent  child! 


LECTURE    V. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

In  this  Series  of  Lectures,  as  thus  far  pursued, 
we  have  considered  the  Human  Soul,  first,  in  the 
original  constitution  of  its  being;  regarding  it  as  en- 
dowed with  a  self-conscious  Life,  transmitted  to  each 
through  the  ministry  of  parents,  yet  really  created  in 
every  one  by  the  power  of  the  Almighty,  made  sep- 
arate and  personal  in  every  one,  and  replete  in  each 
with  the  germs  and  foreshadowings  of  indefinite  devel- 
opement ; — then,  as  adapted  to  the  attainment  of 
Knowledge ;  furnished  with  the  instincts,  and  equipped 
with  the  faculties,  by  which  it  is  prepared  to  ascer- 
tain Truth,  concerning  the  facts  and  forces  around  it, 
concerning  itself,  and  concerning  that  ideal  and  invis- 
ible realm,  of  principles  and  their  relations,  which 
makes  no  appeal  to  any  sense,  which  is  not  reached 
by  the  physical  organs,  but  which  the  intuitive  appre- 
hension of  the  soul  declares  to  be  as  real  as  any 
thing  outward,  the  very  ground  and  source,  in  fact, 
of  all  verity  in  phenomena; — ^then,  as  adapted  by  its 
author  for  Virtue;  prepared  through  its  moral  nature, 
including  the  Conscience,  the  Reason,  the  native  apti- 


220  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

tudes  for  social  affection,  the  Free-Will  which  is  cen- 
tral and  governing  among  its  powers,  to  realize  this 
eminent  spiritual  good  ;  —  and  then,  in  the  fourth 
Lecture,  as  capable  equally  of  Virtuous  Action ;  de- 
signed and  ordained  by  Him  who  created  it,  for  be- 
neficent operation  on  the  world  around  it,  and  on 
other  minds.  The  last  train  of  thought,  we  may 
briefly  recaU  : — 

An  impulse  toward  action  is  native  to  each  spirit- 
ual power  which  we  possess;  the  faculty  for  this 
bringing  instantly  involved  in  it,  by  the  soul's  con- 
stitution, a  tendency  towards  it.  Each  desire  after 
relative  and  particular  goods,  incites  to  such  action 
as  the  only  and  necessary  means  of*  their  attainment. 
The  soul  has  power,  as  exhibited  by  its  actual  his- 
torical performance,  for  inventing  the  necessary  instru- 
ments of  action,  whereby  it  may  affect  either  nature 
or  mankind;  the  implements  of  industry,  with  the 
great  elementary  forces  which  these  wield, — Language 
and  Music,  with  the  spiritual  powers  which  they 
may  utter  and  impress, — being  all  made  thus  subserv- 
ient to  it.  And  of  course  the  same  frame  and  ar- 
rangement of  its  powers  by  which  it  becomes  capable 
of  arising  to  Virtue,  makes  it  capable  of  giving  to  the 
action  which  it  puts  forth  a  virtuous  quahty,  of  in- 
vesting it  with  pure  properties,  and  of  rendering  it 
illustrious  through  its  tendencies  to  Beneficence. 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  221 

So  God  has  prepared  the  soul,  in  that  organic  con- 
stitution which  he  gives  it,  4o  be  a  free  and  noble 
Worker,  exerting  an  influence  not  physical  only,  but 
spiritual  as  well,  and  co-operating  with  Him  in  the 
accomplishment  of  His  plans.  Through  this  capacity 
He  enforces  and  sublimes  it;  and  through  this  it  be- 
comes in  turn  a  fit  and  majestic  witness  for  Him. 
Its  highest  works  are  then  only  fully  or  properly  in- 
terpreted when  considered  as  indices  of  the  wisdom 
and  the  power  of  Him  who  created  it.  All  eloquence 
and  endurance,  poems,  legislations,  religions,  martyr- 
doms, the  art  that  has  enhanced  the  beauty  of  the 
earth,  the  triumphs  of  inventive  and  industrial  skill 
that  have  developed,  combined,  and  accumulated  its 
resources, — all,  are  so  many  prophecies  and  represent- 
atives to  us  of  that  Divine  and  incomparable  Mind 
from  which  the  lesser  minds  exhibited  in  these  works 
originally  sprang.  The  fine  and  finished  forms  of 
beauty,  as  well  as  elevating  moral  appeals,  the  high 
and  rare  inspirations  of  genius,  as  well  as  the  plans 
and  heroic  achievements  of  executive  force,  .with  in- 
stant unanimity  point  us  to  Him  by  whom  the  pow- 
ers that  are  manifested  in  them  were  intrusted  to 
His  creatures,  and  who  hath  in  Himself,  unchangeably 
and  forever,  their  perfect  sum. 

If  then,  even  here,  we  were  to  pause  in  our  sur- 
vey of  the   Human  Soul,  and  our  analysis   and  com- 


222  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

putation  of  the  powers  that  inhere  in  it,  would  not 
the  Wisdom,  the  Goodness,  and  the  Greatness  of  Him 
who  planned  and  then  produced  it,  be  made  signally 
evident?  More  than  in  all  things  else  on  the  Earth, 
or  in  the  visible  Heavens,  more  than  in  '  the  precious 
fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  or  the  precious 
things  put  forth  by  the  moon,  or  the  chief  things 
of  the  ancient  mountains,  or  the  precious  things  of 
the  lasting  hills,'  would  there  not  be  shown  to  us 
both  the  mind  and  the  heart,  and  the  omnific  will, 
of  Him  who  gave  its  every  force  to  this  capacious 
and  regal  spirit? 

But  the  argument  which  it  is  given  to  me  to  trace 
out,  or  rather  which  it  is  given  to  me  to  indicate,  so 
that  you  may  trace  it  out  more  minutely  for  your- 
selves, pursuing  it  into  details  which  I  cannot  enter, 
and  illustrating  it  by  instances  which  I  cannot  cite — 
does  not  rest  at  this  point.  There  still  remain  two 
important  relations  in  the  light  of  which  we  must 
study  our  spiritual  nature ;  two  ideal  Goods  against 
which  we  must  measure  its  mystic  constitution,  in 
order  justly  to  estimate  that,  and  really  to  gather  all 
the  lessons  of  its  Author  which  it  is  fitted  to  bring 
us.  The  first  of  these  is  Happiness  ;  and  the  second 
is  a  grand  and  progressive  Future  Destiny.  If  we 
find  the  soul  adequate  and  adapted  to  these,  I  need 
say  nothing  more  to  place   it  before   you,  a  proof  of 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  223 

God's  character,  and  a  trophy  of  His  power,  unique 
and  supreme  among  these  lower  .works.  You  will  feel 
for  yourselves  that  He  who  has  formed  it  as  He  has, 
has  shown  therein  an  absolute  energy,  with  a  wisdom 
and  goodness  as  boundless  as  his  power;  and  that  to 
a  Being  so  illustrious  and  kind  we  never  can  prop- 
erly cease  to  bring  our  praises  and  our  thanks.  The 
adoration  of  our  life  is  not  too  much  to  render  to 
Him! 

In  the  present  Lecture  I  propose  to  consider  the 
Human  Soul  in  the  first  of  these  relations ;  as  fitted 
for  Happiness  ;  and  to  point  out  some  of  the  forces 
and  tendencies,  constitutional  within  it,  which  show 
how  God  consulted  this  in  creating  it,  and  how  with 
wise  and   careful   skill  He  has  endowed  it  for  this» 

That  true  Happiness  is  a  good,  I  need  not  argue, 
as  if  it  were  a  point  requiring  proof.  The  intimate 
instincts  of  every  mind  declare  it  to  be  such.  The 
arrangements  of  God,  in  his  plan  of  the  creation, 
clearly  and  fully  exhibit  it  as  such.  Entomologists 
tell  us  that  millions  of  insects,  generations  whose  num- 
bers must  be  counted  by  myriads,  are  born  and  die 
within  the  compass  of  one  summer's  day.  Perfected 
with  the  morning,  they  flutter  through  their  sunny 
life ;  and  the  evening,  when  it  turns  its  shadow  upon 
the  earth,  becomes  to  their  animated  and .  tuneful  be- 
ing a  universal  grave.     It  is  impossible  to  understand 


224 


for  what  end  this  is  done,  unless  we  accept  the  hap- 
piness which  these  share,  as  a  good  in  itself;  a  good 
so  great,  in  the  judgment  of  the  Creator,  and  of  those 
who  look  with  Him  on  the  creation,  as  to  justify  the 
expenditure  of  such  wisdom  and  force  on  their  deli- 
cate, harmonious,  but  ephemeral  structure ;  and  to 
make  this  structure  illustrative  of  His  glory. 

Throughout  the  gradations  of  the  animal  kingdom 
we  trace  the  same  tendencies.  We  observe,  as  we 
examine,  not  only  that  the  organs  which  these  ani- 
mals possess  are  planned  and  adjusted  with  reference 
to  use,  but  also  that  that  use  is  fitted,  and  is  evi- 
dently intelligently  designed,  to  be  the  instrument  of 
pleasure.  Enjoyment  comes  as  the  natural. fruit  of  it; 
to  be  at  once  the  reward  of  it  as  past,  and  the  mo- 
tive to  it  in  future.  That  quick,  compact,  and  jew- 
elled form,  which  hovers  like  a  decorated  herald  of 
the  fairies,  around  the  opening  lips  of  the  honey- 
suckle, or  over  the  glowing  bosom  of  the  rose,  seems 
to  quiver  and  pulsate  in  the  very  intenseness  of  its 
eager  enjoyment,  as  it  wavers  and  darts  amid  the 
fluctuating  air.  The  majestic  swoop  of  the  eagle 
through  the  air  bears  the  sound  of  a  kingly  exulta- 
tion on  its  rush.  And  cattle  browsing  amid  the  pas- 
ture, or  loitering  homeward  at  evening  in  lowing 
files,  the  fish  poising  and  playing  in  the  brook,  or 
flashing    with    arrowy    speed    through    the    pool,    the 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  225 

cricket  chirping  on  the  hearth,  bees  filling  the  air 
with  busy  murmur,  the  very  terrapin  sunning  himself 
in  lazy  luxury  above  the  ooze  of  silent  swamps — ^all 
these,  not  less  than  the  wild  thrush  and  the  linnet 
pouring  to  God  through  echoing  skies  their  notes  of 
praise,  those 

"  Invocations  of  bright  birds  that  fling 
Life's  sunny  overflow  from  throat  and  wing,'' — 

attest  the  pleasure  existence  gives  them,  according  to 
the  kind  ordination  of  the  Creator.  God  every  where 
shows  us  in  his  constitution  of  the  animal  kingdom, 
that  the  Happiness  which  is  appropriate  to  the  pow- 
ers of  His  creatures  is  a  good  which  He  recognizes, 
and  would  evermore  foster;  towards  which  He  makes 
the  plans  of  His  creation  systematically  to  con- 
verge. 

And  every  man  knows  instinctively,  for  himself, 
that  true  Happiness  is  a  good  as  related  to  him.  He 
seeks  it  by  an  impulse  which  anticipates  any  deduc- 
tion of  the  judgment.  His  natural  aspiration,  his 
readiest  effort,  is  to  realize  it  more  perfectly.  And 
he  feels  that  whenever  he  shall  fully  accomplish  this, 
when  every  capacity  shall  be  filled  with  enjoyment, 
and  every  action  bring  this  as  its  attendant,  he  shall 
be  sweetly  and  fully  at  rest  in  that  attainment. 
Knowledge,  Virtue,  the  faculty  and  the*  love  of  Virtu- 


226 

ous  Action,  all  these  are  implied  as  conditions  and 
means  of  this  crowning  result.  But  when  through 
them  this  is  finally  reached,  the  end  of  man's  being 
we  know  will  be  realized.  He  will  be  thenceforth  a 
perfect  expression,  more  perfect  and  luminous  to  the 
spiritual  eye  than  the  finest  or  the  noblest  material 
products,  of  the  Wisdom,  the  Goodness,  and  the  Power 
that  have  formed  him. 

The  conviction  of  this,  as  I  have  said,  is  instinct- 
ive. We  perceive  it  intuitively;  and  no  argument, 
to  demonstrate  it,  is  necessary  or  in  place.  The  dan- 
ger is,  not  that  men  will  not  seek  happiness  suffi- 
ciently, with  an  ardor  proportioned  to  its  real  worth, 
,but  that  they  will  seek  it  too  violently,  ambitiously, 
with  a  rash  precipitation,  in  the  use  of  wrong  means, 
at  the  sacrifice  of  Virtue,  and  not  through  its  obedi- 
ence. Eeligion  and  Philosophy  are  both  needed  to 
restrain  them  in  their  effort  to  gain  it;  to  guard  this 
from  becoming  impetuous  and  idolatrous.  But  Re- 
ligion and  Philosophy  both  agree  with  our  instincts 
in  affirming  true  Happiness  as  the  proper  goal  and 
harbor  of  man ;  the  '  beauteous  experience '  in  which 
his  faculties,  and  all  his  endeavors,  shall  find  their 
fruition. 

The  question,  then.  How  far  God  has  adapted  the 
Soul  to  the  attainment  of  Happiness  ?  must  be  recog- 
nized by  all  as  legitimate  to  this  discussion ;   as   fur* 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  227 

nishing  another  opportunity  of  investigating  both  His 
character  and  His  power. — But  in  considering  this,  it 
is  clearly  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  question  con- 
cerns our  constitution,  not  our  action;  the  possibili- 
ties of  Happiness  which  our  nature  affords,  not  the 
actual  attainment  of  it  which  we  severally  make. 
Man  is  not  a  machine,  the  parts  of  whose  nature 
can  be  forced  to  yield  happiness,  as  the  lips  of  the 
loom  are  forced  to  emit  the  vari-colored  fabrics  while 
the  mechanism  behind  pushes  fold  after  fold  irresisti- 
bly before  it.  He  is  not  a  passive  and  impersonal 
subject,  through  whom  happiness  can  be  poured,  as  the 
blush  through  the  peach,  or  the  green  through  the 
grass.  The  element  of  freedom  is  a  central  one  in 
man,  and  so  God  intends  it;  and  the  costliest  en- 
dowment may  therefore  be  wasted,  or  utterly  per- 
verted, by  his  carelessness  or  his  crime. 

The  question  for  us  is :  How  far  has  God,  in  his 
creation  of  the  Soul,  adapted  it  for  Happiness  ?  not, 
What  will  be  the  result  of  disregarding  or  traversing 
the  plan  of  the  Creator  ?  If  our  nature  is  shown  to 
be  receptive  and  capacious  for  the  experience  of  en- 
joyment, and  if,  when  acting  according  to  and  within 
its  appropriate  laws,  it  naturally  secures  that,  then  the 
wise  and  benevolent  energy  of  God  will  be  clearly 
declared  in  it;  although  it  should  be  shown  that 
through  the  disregard  or   violation  of  these  laws,  and 


228  '        THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

through  the  misuse  of  his  fine  and  high  powers,  man 
fails  even  generally  to  secure  and  possess  the  highest 
felicity.  Not  what  we  gain,  but  what  we  may  gain; 
not  what  we  are,  but  what  we  might  he ; — this  is  the 
measure,  so  long  as  we  are  free,  of  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  Him  who  creates  us. 

I.  If  we  thus  consider  the  make  of  the  Soul,  we 
shall  see  for  the  first  thing,  which  is  really  suggestive 
of  all  that   follows,  that   The    very    Sense    of   Being, 

WHICH  IS  CENTRAL  AND  INNATE  IN  IT,  IS  A  SOURCE  OF  EN- 
JOYMENT.— So  curiously  and  beautifully  organized  is  it, 
that  with  the  powers  which  it  possesses,  and  in  the 
conditions  which  properly  invest  these,  self-conscious- 
ness gives  it  Happiness.  Aside  from  all  particular 
delights,  antecedent  to  their  experience,  surviving  their 
departure,  it  holds,  as  a  perennial  fragrance,  this 
pleasure-giving  sense  of  a  personal  existence. 

We  pass  up  at  a  step,  as  we  contemplate  this,  from 
the  material  to  the  spiritual;  from  the  merely  organ- 
ific  and  unconscious  life  which  is  manifest  in  the 
plant,  or  the  unreflective  life  which  is  evident  in  the 
animal,  to  that  which  is  sensitive,  intellectual,  free, 
in  the  Human  Soul.  It  lets  us  into  a  secret  of 
God's  heart;  and  shows  us  very  evidently  the  im- 
measurable kindness,  as  well  as  the  exquisite  skill 
and  foresight,  and  the  incomparable  power,  which  are 
lodged   in  His    mind  ! — Observe    how   independent   of 


PREPABED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  229 

circumstances  it  is;  this  intimate  and  permeating, 
though  silent  pleasure,  which  springs  up  in  the  soul 
from  the  very  Sense  of  Being.  It  is  not  conditioned 
upon  any  particular  mental  attainments,  though  doubt- 
less it  often  increases  and  is  confirmed  as  these  are 
advanced.  It  is  not  conditioned  on  any  particular 
exertions  and  successes  of  the  executive  faculties. 
It*  lives  in  all ;  and  almost  nothing  can  overthrow  it, 
or  separate  men  from  it. 

You  see  it  expressed,  unconsciously,  but  only  there- 
fore the  more  emphatically,  by  the  child ;  whose  every 
motion  and  beaming  feature,  in  the  absence  of  course 
of  disappointment  and  trouble,  but  equally  in  the 
absence  of  any  special  incitements  to  pleasurable  emo- 
tion, betokens  how  pleasant  it  is  to  live ;  what  silent 
luxury  is  in  the  consciousness  of  Being.  You  may 
trace  it  thereafter,  if  you  will,  through  his  Hfe.  Let 
that  child  grow  up  a  sickly  cripple;  enfeebled  and 
distorted,  by  disease  or  by  casualty,  compelled  to 
carry  with  him,  through  his  earthly  career,  the  bur- 
den of  constant  debility  and  pain ;  and  still  this 
inward  unpurchasable  pleasure,  attending  the  very 
consciousness  of  existence,  is  not  destroyed  or  over- 
borne. Let  poverty  be  added  to  this  physical  in- 
firmity, and  enforced  alienation  from  home  and  its 
pleasures;  let  imprisonment,  even,  be  added,  shutting 
out  the  pleasant  light  of  the  sun  and  the  skies,  the 


230  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

smile  of  the  fields,  the  face  of  friendship,  the  sounds  , 
of  nature,  and  all  the  voices  of  kindly  cheer ; — ^and 
still  the  sense,  interior  and  enduring,  of  the  good- 
ness of  Life,  and  of  the  blessedness  of  possessing  it,  is 
not  destroyed,  or  even  silenced.  Almost  no  imagin- 
able disaster,  coming  from  without,  can  uproot  or 
silence  this.  It  is  lost,  if  at  all,  only  when  inward 
unrest  and  pain,  the  fruit  of  ambitious  plans  distip- 
pointed,  or  of  selfish  hopes  frustrated,  or  of  sins  the 
more  terrible  for  their  very  successes,  have  smoth- 
ered and  drowned  its  delicate  sense.  And  then  the 
exclamation,  ^I  had  as  lief  die  as  live,'  announces 
the  surrender  of  the  very  citadel  of  the  soul,  the 
essential   separation  of  the  man  from  his  kind. 

Common  to  all,  except  as  thus  sacrificed  by  their 
own  impure  action,  is  this  sense  of  the  beauty  and 
dignity  of  existence,  this  joy  in  its  experience.  It 
becomes  more  refined,  more  elevated,  and  perhaps 
more  evident,  as  the  faculties  are  unfolded  and  the 
tastes  are  cherished,  as  the  affections  are  exercised, 
and  as  the  hope  of  the  Future  becomes  firmer  and 
more  vivid.  But  all  partake  of  it ;  the  savage  in 
the  woods,  as  well  as  the  magnanimous  statesman  in 
the  senate ;  the  barbarian  islander,  as  well  as  the 
cultivated  man  or  woman  of  our  civilization.  It 
makes  all  shrink  from  whatever  threatens,  or  even  re- 
sembles, the  cessation  of  existence.     And  it  is  under- 


PREPARED    FOR     HAPPINESS.  231 

neath  the  manifold  particular  enjoyments  of  life,  as  the 
low  unaspiring  harmony  in  music,  which  breathes  be- 
neath the  brilliant  melodies,  and  interpenetrates  the 
majestic  anthem,  not  challenging  a  separate  attention 
to  itself,  but  adding  to  them  a  more  copious  charm, 
and  supplying  them  all  with  its  undulating  basis.  It 
is  like  the  sweet  sunshine,  enveloping  the  earth,  and 
fillhig  the  air.  We  do  not  notice  this  as  much  as  we 
do  the  particular  beauties,  of  the  vase  or  the  paint- 
ing, of  verdure  or  of  form,  which  it  reveals.  But 
this  serene  and  unstartling  glory,  which  floats  silent 
in  the  air,  and  touches  the  earth  like  a  smile  of 
its  maker,  is  that  which  gives  their  beauty  to  all 
those,  and  makes  them  meet  to  attract  our  thought. 
And  so  the  primary  permanent  pleasure  which  the 
very  constitution  of  our  being  affords  us,  which  is 
brought  to  us  afresh  at  each  moment  of  conscious- 
ness, which  sickness  does  not  break,  and  which  no- 
thing less  than  remorse  overthrows,  is  that  which 
makes  all  transient  pleasures  real  or  possible.  With- 
out this  other  things  could  not  gratify  us  at  all. 
Through  this,  such  minor  and  particular  delights  gain 
power  to  gladden. 

Consider,  then,  how  easy  it  would  have  been  for 
God,  if  malevolently  directing  His  infinite  power,  to 
have  made  the  very  sense  of  vitality  a  pain,  and  thus 
to  have  made   every  motion  of  the   will  a  fresh  dis- 


232 

tinct  pang;  consider  how  easy  to  have  made  it  indif- 
ferent, a  mere  negative  base  of  sensation  and  thought, 
upon  which  special  pleasures  should  be  superinduced, 
but  from  which  they  should  take  no  vivacity  or  ful- 
ness ;— and  then  see  how  he  has  made  it,  in,  itself  full 
of  joy,  the  very  sense  of  existence  a  perpetual  feli- 
city, pervading  the  soul  at  each  moment  of  its  being 
as  the  lustre  pervades  the  substance  of  the  gem — and 
you  notice  His  delicate  and  continual  contemplation 
of  man's  Happiness  as  a  good ;  His  assiduous  plan- 
ning for  it,  in  the  very  foundation  and  conception 
of  our  being.  Such  happiness  is  thus  made  native 
to  the  soul,  and  almost  necessary.  Our  nature  is 
framed  for  it,  and  involves  it  from  the  start.  This 
demonstrates  God's  character,  and  it  justifies  our 
praise ! 

II.  And  so,  as  we  go  further  in  examining  the  Soul, 
it  is  equally  apparent,  in  the  second  place,  that  such 
and  so  careful  is  the  constitution  God  has  given  it 
that  Each  Motion  of  its  faculties,  while  acting  ac- 
cording   TO    THE     LAW    IMPRESSED    ON    THEM,   BECOMES    THE 

SOURCE  OF  A  DISTINCT  PLEASURE. — It  is  not  Only  pleas- 
ant to  live ;  it  is  pleasant  to  act,  no  matter  what 
the  form  or  the  particular  kind  of  the  action  may  be, 
so  long  as  it  is  put  forth  under  that  paramount  law 
of  Virtue  which  God  has  made  supreme  above  us, 
and  which   he   never  consents  to  intermit.     The  bear- 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  233 

ing  of  this  fact,  if  such  it  is  shown  to  be,  on  the 
theme  before  us,  is  instantly  evident. 

A  harp  might  conceivably  be  so  framed  by  its 
maker  that  every  string,  though  rightly  tuned  and 
rightly  struck,  according  to  the  theory  and  design  of 
the  instrument,  should  emit  when  touched  a  separate 
discord.  Or  it  may  be  so  framed,  as  we  know  by  ex- 
perience, that  from  it  shall  flow,  when  fitly  swept 
by  an  educated  hand,  the  concerted  numbers  of  a 
noble  music;  inspiring  the  thoughts  with  their  spir- 
itual force,  or  suffusing  the  very  air  around  us  with 
an  audible  glory,  and  making  it  drop  benedictions 
upon  us.  If  the  latter  be  the  case,  we  know  that 
the  instrument  was  made  for  such  melodies,  and  we 
bless  him  who  framed  it.  If  the  former  be  the  case, 
it  shows  that  that  instrument  was  made  without  de- 
sign, or  else  was  made  with  malicious  intent,  to 
mock  with  pain  where  it  promised  to  please.  Now 
God  has  so  framed  the  Human  Soul,  in  his  wise 
and  benevolent  ordination  of  its  powers,  that  each  of 
these  powers,  as  normally  employed,  according  to  His 
plan,  gives  a  separate  pleasm-e.  K  unhappiness  comes 
from  them,  it  is  from  their  wrong  use,  not  from  their 
use ;  from  our  perversion,  and  not  from  our  just  em- 
ployment of  them. 

Take  the  power,  for  example,  which  the  soul  pos- 
sesses, to  which  in  another  connection  your   thoughts 


234 

have  already  been  directed^  of  using  the  material  mech- 
anism of  the  Bodt/,  and  of  operating  through  this  upon 
the  outward  world.  This  is  not  only  indispensable  to 
its  useful  activity,  while  it  lives  surrounded  by  mat- 
ter and  its  forces;  but  it  becomes  to  it  a  spring  of 
perpetual  pleasure,  so  long  as  the  proper  relations  are 
maintained  between  the  body  and  the  soul,,  and  their 
reciprocal  functions  are  healthfully  fulfilled.  In  the 
constitution  and  combination  of  the  five  physical 
senses, — whereby  the  frame  is  made  pervious  to  im- 
pressions, which  pass  through  it  from  matter  to  the 
mind,  or  rather  whereby  the  mind  is  rendered  capa- 
ble of  reaching  out  through  the  frame,  of  surveying 
nature,  apprehending  and  measuring  it, — we  see  this  il- 
lustrated. An  arrangement  is  here  elaborately  planned 
for  the  pleasure  of  the  spirit ;  and  every  movement 
and  action  of  that  spirit,  justly  avaihng  itself  of  this 
arrangement,  communicates  enjoyment. 

Reflect  on  the  consequences  of  that  equally  feasi- 
ble, of  that  seemingly  more  natural  and  feasible  ar- 
rangement, by  which  the  soul  should  have  had  but 
one  avenue,  of  touch  or  of  taste,  of  hearing  or  of 
sight,  through  which  to  attain  and  relatively  appro- 
priate the  outward  world.  What  a  comparative  blank 
would  its  experience  have  been  !  How  immensely,  at 
once,  must  its  enjoyment  have  been  lessened !  Now, 
lord  of  the  body,  through  all  its  five  '  imperial  ways,' 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  235 

by  the  golden  gate  of  sight,  or  by  the  ivory  gate  of 
hearing,  along  the  living  causeways  of  the  touch,  or 
through  those  other  pathways  to  the  earth  more  hum- 
ble in  their  aspect,  yet  flower-lined  and  fruit-present- 
ing, it  goes  upon  its  missions;  and  each  of  these 
movements  is  in  itself,  aside  from  what  it  brings  us, 
an  appreciable  pleasure.  Observe  the  blind ;  consider 
the  deaf;  remember  the  rare  and  exceptional  in- 
stances in  which  men  have  had  no  sense  of  taste, 
or  of  touch,  or  of  smell ;  and  be  grateful  to  Him 
who  has  made  these  departures  from  His  usual  ap- 
pointment so  rare,  and  almost  solitary. 

Not  merely  in  the  number  and  the  copious  com- 
pleteness of  this  series  of  the  Senses,  over  which  the 
Soul  by  its  constitution  has  supremacy,  do  we  dis- 
cover the  wise  kindness  of  God ;  but  equally  in 
the  perfect  constitution  of  each,  and  the  fitnesses 
which  exist  between  it  and  the  mind.  Consider  the 
effects  which  are  wrought  by  disease  on  either  of 
these  physical  media  of  our  action,  interrupting  the 
usual  operations  of  the  soul  and  suspending  its  suprem- 
acy, putting  barriers  between  it  and  the  world  which 
is  around  it,  and  compelling  it  to  act  through  a  dis- 
ordered mechanism ;  and  then  admire,  in  contrast  with 
this,  that  delicate  and  careful  adjustment  of  the  body 
with  reference  to  the  soul  which  God  has  established, 
and  which  guUt  only  invades.' 


236 


In  one  of  the  most  terrible  of  modern  fictions  is 
vividly  pictured  a  disease  of  the  eye,  the  result  of 
the  practice  of  licentious  indulgences,  through  which 
that  vital  and  crystalline  orb  becomes  the  medium,  or 
rather  the  focus  and  radiating  centre,  of  the  most  in- 
tense pain ;  in  which  visions  of  fiery  and  torturing  dis- 
tinctness seem  originated  in  it,  to  throng  backward 
upon  the  mind;  and  the  latter  having  lost  all  the 
lordship  which  it  asserts  over  the  undefiled  organ, 
becomes  a  prey  to  its  terrors,  and  is  lashed  by  its 
pangs.  A  parallel  efiect  is  sometimes  produced,  by 
fever  or  by  casualty,  on  the  structure  of  the  ear.  It 
seems  to  be  released  from  the  dominion  of  the  soul, 
to  be  dislocated  from  its  proper  relation  of  allegiance, 
and  let  loose  for  a  separate,  self-originated  activity; 
and  it  so  responds  to  each  tone  from  without,  that  the 
soul  meets  each  with  a  palpitating  spasm.  It  is  fe- 
vered and  convulsed,  not  charmed  or  instructed,  by 
the  motions  of  its  servant,  now  broken  from  its  grasp 
and  turning   to  rend  it. 

Suppose,  then,  that  this  were  the  normal  and  usual 
relation  of  these  organs  to  the  sensitive  spirit;  what 
an  evident  diabolism  would  it  argue  in  the  Creator! 
Contrast  with  it  that  wise  and  benign  adaptation,  uni- 
versal except  as  man's  sin  interrupts  it,  directly  or 
remotely,  by  which  the  mind,  invisible  itself,  possesses 
and  uses,  without  hindrance  or  let,  these  physical  or- 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  237 

gans ; — observe  how  each  use  of  them,  while  they  re- 
main unimpaired,  gives  it  fresh  satisfactions ;  what 
constant  pleasure  is  in  the  exercise  of  seeing,  so  that, 
as  William  Humboldt  says  in  his  Letters,  "the  mere 
sensation  of  light,  quite  abstracted  from  the  percep- 
tion of  objects,  is  always  pleasing  and  delightful;" 
consider  how  the  soul  is  pleased,  in  the  absence  of 
irritants,  with  the  mere  act  of  touch,  the  mere  mo- 
tion of  hearing ; — and  you  see  how  furnished  it  is  for 
Happiness  !  with  what  ^dgilant  fidehty  God  so  far  at 
least  has  prepared  it  for  this  good.  The  world  around 
is  made  the  thronging  seed-bed  of  its  pleasures  ; 
while  the  senses  which  it  uses,  to  bring  itself  into 
connection  with  that,  become  each  one  a  minister  to 
its  enjoyment,  and  every  impression  which  it  summons 
to  itself,  according  to  the  foresight  and  plan  of  its 
author,  comes  marching  to  the  measure  of  lutes  and 
dulcimers. 

The  same  thing  is  as  true  of  the  power  which  the 
soul  has  of  wielding  the  different  members  of  the 
body,  to  accomplish  its  ends  in  executive  action.  The 
very  act  of  moving  the  limb  gives  pleasure,  if 
that  be  healthful  and  unfatigued.  The  mere  use  of 
the  arm  holds  its  own  reward  in  it.  It  is  not  a' 
great  or  signal  reward,  but  it  is  a  real  one ;  and  un- 
less it  be  overbalanced  by  subsequent  disappointments, 
we  recognize    and   feel  it.     Industry  is  a  joy  to    us, 


238 

therefore,  even  when  unsuccessful ;  and  it  is  literally 
true,  as  the  Preacher  instructs  us,  that  '  in  all  labor 
there  is  profit.'  The  farmer  who  is  not  harassed  by- 
anxiety,  or  oppressed  with  disaster,  goes  out  to  his 
morning  work  singing  as  he  goes  with  a  bhthe  cheer 
that  makes  the  fields  re-echo  with  the  strain.  The 
labor  itself,  as  well  as  the  harvest,  has  invitations  for 
him.  You  need  not  compassionate  him,  on  that  to  you 
so  unaccustomed  toil ;  for  to  him  the  very  exercise 
is  a  pleasure,  and  the  beaded  sweat-drops  on  the  brow 
are  worth  the  price  of  many  sheaves.  So  the  blow 
of  the  ship-builder  rings  with  the  impulse  of  a  superflu- 
ous strength;  and  the  axe  of  the  pioneer  drives 
against  the  tree  with  a  force  which  shows  that  the 
soul  is  interested,  and  not  merely  the  muscle,  in  every 
stroke.  The  very  use  of  the  body,  by  the  will  which 
is  within  it  and  superior  to  it,  gives  a  natural  pleas- 
ure. It  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  God's  constitution 
that  this  should  be  so ;  and  it  manifests  His  good- 
ness. He  makes  the  body  not  a"  prison  to  the  soul, 
but  a  beautiful  shrine  of  it ;  not  its  tyrannous  task- 
master, but  its  servitor  and  tributary. 

We  are  accustomed,  indeed,  to  anticipate  the  time 
when  released  from  this  body,  and  perhaps  clothed 
upon  with  a  purer  and  more  splendid  celestial  struc- 
ture, the  Soul  shall  enter  still  new  felicities,  and  vin- 
dicate more  illustriously  the  mind  and  will  of  Him  who 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  239 

formed  it.  I  am  not  here  to  invalidate  this  hope. 
On  the  contrary,  I  also  and  joyfully  look  to  this,  as 
not  more  a  vision  of  poetry,  or  a  thought  of  phi- 
losophy, than  a  truth  of  Religion ;  as  a  fact  made 
certain  to  all  who  are  Christ's,  hy  the  actual  and  re- 
corded ascension  of  their  Master.  We  may  gladly 
await  that  sublime  consummation.  But  it  becomes 
us  to  notice,  and  gratefully  to  recognize  and  appre- 
ciate the  fact,  that  while  the  soul  is  conjoined  as  now 
with  the  physical  frame,  it  derives  from  that  connec- 
tion a  sensible  Happiuess ;  every  use  which  it  makes 
of  this,  if  appropriate  and  just,  imparting  a  fresh 
pleasure.  Not  only  do  these  members  bring  gifts  and 
reports  to  it,  of  impressions  which  they  have  taken 
up  from  the  world,  or  of  works  which  they  have 
wrought,  and  objects  which  they  have  gained  in  it. 
Their  very  obedient  service  is  a  joy,  and  in  its 
use  of  them  it  finds  a  reward. 

But  we  need,  of  course,  to  get  back  to  the  inner 
spiritual  activities,  considered  in  themselves,  and  dis- 
sociated from  all  relations  to  the  frame,  to  see  this 
principle  in  its  fullest  application.  There,  too,  it  will 
be  found,  if  we  carefully  examine,  that  every  appro- 
priate movement  of  the  Soul,  in  its  voluntary  action, 
is  attended  with  pleasure.  It  not  only  may  gain  a 
reward  ulterior  to  itself,  but  it  holds  in  itself,  aside 
from  such  gains,  an   intrinsic   reward.      A   degree  of 


240 


enjoyment  is  constitutionally  involved  in  it,  and  there- 
fore is  inseparable  from  it. 

Take  the  strictly  mental  action,  for  example,  of  the 
Taste,  the  Judgment,  or  the  Imagination;  and  you  can- 
not but  notice  that  each  of  these  faculties,  while 
normally  active,  is  productive  of  pleasure.  Whatever 
may  be  the  particular  line  of  effort  in  which  they 
are  employed,  the  very  use  of  them,  so  long  as  it  is 
virtuous,  is  a  pleasure;  and  he  who  uses  them  most 
legitimately,  and  most  continuously,  experiences  there- 
for the  truest  enjoyment. 

The  pleasures  of  the  Taste — the  pleasures,  that  is, 
which  spontaneously  arise  from  the  intelligent  percep- 
tion and  measurement  by  the  soul  of  what  is  out- 
wardly beautiful, —  have  been  a  favorite,  ever-new 
experience,  with  the  delicate  and  refined,  since  the 
earth  with  its  mountains  and  its  dew-mantled  plains 
lay  smiling  and  serene  in  primal  light.  In  how 
many  songs,  of  an  exquisite  grace,  have  these  pleas- 
ures been  celebrated !  Over  how  many  hearts  and 
households  have  they  distilled  their  gentle  baptism ! 
In  how  many  souls,  indeed,  peculiarly  endowed  with  this 
mental  sensibility,  have  such  pleasures  had  a  charm 
which  business,  and  friendship,  and  Religion  itself, 
must  avail  themselves  of,  in  order  to  urge  their  high- 
est appeal! 

The  pure  and  beaming  azure,  standing  as  an  eternal 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  241 

dome,  which  God  hath  reared  for  his  own  glory ;  the 
emerald  and  silver  mosaic  of  land  and  sea,  which 
spreads  its  vast  and  tesselated  pavement  beneath 
this  roof;  the  manifold  and  innumerable  particulars 
of  beauty,  with  which  this  great  Cathedral  of  the 
Earth  is  furnished  by  its  builder ;  rainbows,  waving 
their  splendid  banners  along  its  high  and  darkened 
nave ;  forests,  cresting  like  capitals  its  columnar  heights  ; 
flowers,  smiling  beneath  these  heights,  like  letters  and 
signs  of  an  illuminated  page;  fountains  and  streams, 
and  ^  sunny  spots  of  greenery,'  brightening  amid  them, 
as  very  fonts  of  God  for  the  cleansing  of  life ;  all 
that  which  marks  this  visible  scene  an  august  Tem- 
ple; and  all  which  art  has  done  to  match  this,  and 
set  on  arch,  pillar  and  pinnacle,  statues  and  finials; — 
as  the  soul,  accustomed  with  its  faculty  of  Taste  to 
observe  and  to  measure  all  this  and  these,  reaches 
forth  unto  them,  and  applies  to  them  those  laws  of 
beauty  the  intuition  of  which  is  inherent  within  it, 
what  intimate  pleasure  penetrates  its  -frame !  What 
light  and  joy  suffuse  its  experience  ! 

This  is  not  a  pleasure  of  the  senses  alone.  It  is 
far  more  rich  and  deep  than  that,  because  more  spir- 
itual. It  comes  directly  from  the  action  of  the  Soul, 
applying  to  that  which  the  senses  reveal  to  it,  those 
ideas  and  laws,  unseen  but  imperative,  of  which  it  is 
certified  by  its  very   constitution.      According  to   the 

16 


242  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

nature  which  God  has  given  it,  it  derives  an  imme- 
diate satisfaction  from  this.  And  all  the  pleasures 
which  pertain  to  the  body,  of  gratified  appetite  or  of 
luxurious  repose,  are  poor  and  coarse  in  comparison 
with  this.  This  becomes,  too,  more  clear,  emphatic,  and 
abounding,  its  ethereal  influence  pervades  us  more 
fully,  as  the  mind  is  matured,  and  as  its  faculty  of 
Taste  is  cultured  and  refined. 

It  is  noticeable,  even,  that  when  the  object  to  which 
we  apply  these  laws  of  beauty,  in  proportion  or  color, 
is  itself  entirely  opposed  to  those  laws,  in  its  aspect 
and  constitution — as  when  we  view  the  ragged  chasm 
where  an  earthquake  has  heaved  two  hills  apart,  or 
when  we  look  on  the  solitary  tree  blasted  and  light- 
ning-smitten, when  we  pause  above  the  whirlpool,  or 
stand  beneath  the  chalky  and  thunder-cleft  precipice 
— still  the  very  act  of  considering  and  adjudging  the 
object,  and  of  setting  it  in  contrast  with  those  which 
no  such  convulsion  has  rent,  gives  us  natural  pleasure. 
In  other  words,  it  is  pleasant  to  use  the  faculty  of 
Taste,  though  what  we  examine  is  inharmonious  with 
its  rules.  The  very  exercise  of  the  mind,  in  discrim- 
inating the  fact,  afibrds  us  a  satisfaction.  And  if  ev- 
ery thing  around  us  were  repulsive  to  us,  we  should 
evermore  be  moved  to  discover  and  report  it.  So 
subtly  has  Grod  intertwined  with  the  Taste  the  tend- 
ency to  pleasure,  making  its  very  action  a  source  of 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  243 

this,  while  also  He  surrounds  it  with  objects  in  ii^e 
earth  adapted  to  afford  it  those  secondary  delights 
for  which  it  is  fitted,  in  copious  measure. 

In  the  use  of  the  Understanding,  we  discern  the 
same  tendency.'  Indeed,  the  pleasures  wliich  flow  from 
the  exercise  and  employment  of  the  Taste  are  not  equal 
certainly,  they  hardly  are  comparable,  to  those  de- 
rived from  the  use  of  this  power — the  analytic,  con- 
structive, and  harmonizing  power,  by  which  the 
products  of  invention  are  organized,  by  which  sciences 
are  elaborated,  and  arguments  planned.  This  does  not 
show  so  brightly  at  first  as  does  the  Taste.  That 
shines  like  silver  in  the  recesses  of  the  mind,  while 
the  Judgment  looks  cold  and  dark,  like  iron.  But 
the  iron  when  heated  gives  out  a  lustre  so  splendid 
and  intense  that  the  glow  of  the  silver,  though  equally 
heated,  fades  into  an  ashy  pale  whiteness  before  it. 
And  so  the  Judgment,  the  analysing,  comparing  and 
administrative  faculty,  when  keenly  excited  and  pow- 
erfully active,  gives  out  a  pleasure  that  enlightens 
and  kindles  each  part  of  the  soul,  and  in  comparison 
with  which  the  pleasures  of  the  Taste  are  superficial 
and  dull. 

Archimedes,  rushing  naked  from  the  bath  to  his 
instruments,  because  suddenly  there  had  flashed  on 
him,  as  he  stepped  into  the  water,  the  true  mode 
of  ascertaining  the  specific   gravity  of  metals ;  or  the 


244  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

same  geometrician,  so  absorbed  in  what  some  have 
supposed  to  be  an  effort  for  the  quadrature  of  the 
circle,  as  not  to  heed  the  flaming  city,  and  not  to 
know  that  Death  approached  him : — this  is  an  in- 
stance which  familiarly  recurs  to  us  to*  illustrate  this 
principle.  And  a  bright  and  conspicuous  instance  it 
is  ;  hardly  possible,  in  its  particulars,  except  to  that 
eager  and  intense  Greek  nature  which  rushed  to  each 
pursuit  with  a  consecrating  fervor.  Yet  many  others 
have  substantially  reproduced  it. 

Read  those  magnificent  and  inspiring  words,  alive 
in  every  syllable  with  an  exulting  enjoyment,  with 
which  Kepler  introduced  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
world  his  treatise  of  the  highest  astronomical  laws ; 
remember  what  is  told  us  by  TuUy  of  himself,  of  his 
consuming  delight  and  ardor  in  constructing  his  ora- 
tions;  what  is  told  us  of  Pascal,  as  he  meditated 
Euclid  till  night  and  day  were  dissolved  together  in 
his  mental  excitement ;  nay,  observe  for  yourself  the 
exceeding  enjoyment  of  any  inventor  perfecting  his 
instruments,  of  any  reasoner  compacting  his  argu- 
ments that  they  may  present  undivided  and  complete 
their  phalanx  of  appeal;  consider  how  absorbing  have 
been  those  hours  in  your  own  experience,  in  which 
some  fact  giving  hint  of  a  theory  has  been  meditated 
by  you,  and  made  to  render  up  its  scientific  mean- 
ings, or  in  which  some  plan,   political   or   commercial, 


.    PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  245 

has  been  seized  upon  by  you,  its  parts  framed  to- 
gether, and  its  applications  developed,  till  you  knew 
beforehand  what  its  working  would  be,  and  could 
prophesy  its  success ; — consider  these  instances,  and  the 
others  that  are  like  them,  and  you  see  at  once  what 
an  exquisite  pleasure,  often  rising  to  enthusiasm  and 
sometimes  to  extasy,  is  involved  in  the  use  of  this 
customary  faculty,  which  we  name  the  •  Understand- 
ing ! 

It  comes  from  no  rare  inspkations  of  genius.  It 
requires  no  singular  attainments  of  knowledge.  It 
comes  interlocked,  in  inseparable  connection,  with  the 
proper  activity  of  that  general  power  of  dissection  and 
construction  which  every  man  more  or  less  fully  pos- 
sesses. It  cannot  be  divorced  from  that,  any  more 
than  the  heat-ray  from  the  light-ray  in  the  sunbeam. 
And  any  man  who  honestly  and  earnestly  uses  his 
Judgment,  to  develope  a  truth,  or  distinguish  a  right 
and  useful  course  of  action,  gains  this  reward  from  it. 
To  do  a  thing  mechanically,  may  merely  bring  tedium. 
To  do  it  intelligently,  will  always  give  pleasure.  And 
the  higher  and  more  prolonged  the  exertion  which  the 
understanding  puts  forth — so  it  be  not  carried  to  that 
inordinate  extreme  where  a  re-action  follows,  to  restore 
the  mental  balance — the  more  marked  is  this  pleasure. 
A  part  of  the  interest  which  men  take  in  politics,  in 
commerce,  in  the  legal  profession,  a  great  part  of  that 


246 

which  they  take  in  mechanics,  and  the  arts  of  Inven- 
tion, is  deriA^ed  from  this  source.  The  very  friction 
of  the  mind,  if  so  we  may  express  it,  in  its  contact 
with  difficult  principles  and  themes,  which  might  have 
been  made  the  occasion  of  pain,  becomes  the  occasion 
of  a  noble  enjoyment,  under  God's  constitution. 

The  same  law  is  observable,  in  yet  higher  and  more 
conspicuous  exhibition,  in  the  use  of  the  Imagination, 
on  themes  which  are  appropriate  to  it,  and  within  the 
limits  which  are  properly  affixed  to  it.  The  very  exer- 
cise of  the  faculty  becomes,  evermore,  and  all  the  more 
fully  as  it  is  developed  more  largely,  the  source  of 
enjoyment.  Not  only  for  what  it  gains,  but  for  what 
it  contains,  men  delight  in  that  exercise.  If  every 
outward  good  which  it  brings  us  were  doomed  to  pass 
from  us  the  moment  it  was  realized,  still  they  in 
whom  the  faculty  is  prominent  would  be  moved  to 
employ  it,  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  its  use.  Watch 
the  artist  at  his  work — the  really  devoted  and  tri- 
umphant artist,  to  whom  his  art  is  not  a  mere  means 
of  daily  subsistence,  but  a  mistress  and  a  queen,  and 
who  speaks  through  it  great  thoughts  unto  the  world, 
or  spreads  before  this  the  archetypal  forms  which 
each  pause  of  thought  brings  vividly  before  him; — 
and  you  see  that  to  him  the  weary  labor  of  the  day, 
the  patient  vigil  of  the  night,  are  themselves  more  in- 
viting  than   worldly   successes.      'He   has   eaten    the 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  247 

lotus/  men  say,  and  has  forgotten  life's  cares.  Nay, 
but  his  art  is  more  to  him  than  the  lotus ;  its  very 
labor  a  solace ;  its  exhausting  applications  an  intoxi- 
cating pleasure. 

So  remember  how  the  poets  have  arisen  as  from 
a  dream  from  that  long  reverie  wherein  the  Imagina- 
tion has  discoursed  to  them  of  islands  populous  with 
pure  beings,  of  magnificent  cities  now  swallowed  up 
of  Time,  of  deserts  gleaming  white  around  fountains 
and  palm-trees,  or  of  worlds  overhead  whose  beauties 
are  as  yet  inconceivable  by  us,  where  vast  and  swift 
cherubic  armies  marshal  their  squadrons,  where  pave- 
ments are  impurpled  with  amaranthine  wreaths,  where 
crystal  seas,  'mingled  with  fire,'  roll  up  their  praise 
in  sweetest  diapason ;  and  who  then  have  poured 
forth  these  spiritual  visions  with  an  absolute  utter- 
ance, self-possessed  and  supreme  in  their  untroubled 
rapture  and  height  of  soul; — remember  what  great 
discoverers  or  reformers  have  exultingly  experienced, 
as  they  have  contemplated  changes,  and  the  results 
of  them,  to  be  wrought  in  society  by  their  action 
and  plans ;  how  they  have  delighted  to  look  forward 
to  these,  till  what  to  others  were  dreams  became  to 
them  the  only  fixed  and  final  certainties ; — remember 
how  believers  in  every  Religion  have  valued  it  in  pro- 
portion as  it  has  appealed  to  this  spiritual  faculty, 
and  has  opened  sceneries,  societies,  occupations,  in  the 


248  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

realms  of  the  Future,  amid  whose  shadowy  lines  and 
series  the  Imagination  might  roam  with  an  unfettered 
freedom; — and  you  see  how  immediate,  how  signal  and 
universal,  is  the  pleasure  which  comes  from  the  use 
of  this  power. 

It  is  not  limited  to  individuals  or  a  class.  As  the 
Imagination  is  developed  among  our  earliest  powers, 
and  as  all  men  in  some  degree  possess  it,  so  all  may 
experience  this  enjoyment  in  the  use  of  it.  The 
pleasure  which  fairy-tales  give  to  children,  has  its  ori- 
gin here.  The  pleasure  which  men  in  after-life  take 
in  novels,  in  the  drama,  in  even  history  and  biogra- 
phy, is  largely  derived  from  the  same  rich  source. 
Not  only  because  the  faculties  are  instructed,  or  the 
sympathies  stirred  by  these,  but  also,  and  often  mainly, 
because  the  Imagination  is  appealed  to  by  them,  and 
is  brought  into  exercise,  such  works  make  a  pow- 
erful address  to  the  Race.  All  men  are  in  some 
measure  susceptible  to  this,  while  some  are,  of  course, 
more  exquisitely  alive  to  it. 

Where  the  use  of  the  Imagination  is  continuous 
and  distinctive,  the  pleasure  which  it  gives  becomes 
surpassing,  wonderful.  It  is  then  independent  of  all 
changes  of  fortune,  and  of  aU  outward  circumstances. 
Beethoven,  in  his  deafness,  is  glorified  by  it.  The 
dusty  garret  becomes  to  him  a  temple;  the  broken 
harpsichord  a  shining  lyre;  while  the  soul  dilates  and 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  249 

transportedly  revels  in  those  vast  symphonies  unrolling 
like  chanted  spiritual  messages  before  his  high  impe- 
rial thought.  Milton,  in  his  blindness,  is  made  insen- 
sible of  mortal  limitations  by  the  same  sublime  power. 
And  the  student  in  his  cloister,  reading  with  dra- 
matic and  interpreting  eye  the  myriad  entanglements 
and  involutions  of  life;  the  missionary-martyr,  con- 
templating truths  '  which  eye  hath  not  seen,'  and 
anticipating  a  Future  which  the  seraphim  shall  cele- 
brate ;  the  philanthropist,  going  up  in  his  thoughts 
unto  God,  and  gathering  around  him  in  the  lofty  vis- 
ion of  an  aroused  Imagination  the  wise  and  blessed 
of  all  the  Past; — all,  show  the  same  source  of  free- 
dom and  of  joy !  The  faculty  of  Imagination,  in  its 
natural  use,  secures  to  them  a  pleasure  which  adver- 
sity cannot  waste,  and  which  obloquy  cannot  break ; 
which  is  inward,  transcendent,  and  independent  of 
circumstance. 

It  is  important  to  observe,  too,  and  therefore  I  re- 
peat it,  that  in  regard  to  both  these  mental  faculties 
of  the  Judgment  and  the  Imagination,  the  simple 
bare  use  of  them,  aside  from  the  results  to  which  they 
may  conduct  us,  affords  us  a  pleasure.  The  very  ac- 
tion of  the  Judgment,  the  mere  exercise  of  the  Im- 
agination, holds  enjoyment  in  itself;  and  this  is  as 
evident,  therefore,  when  the  result  of  the  action  is 
only  the   severance   of  error   from  truth,  as   when  it 


250 


is  the  fresh  appropriation  of  the  latter;  it  is  as 
evident  when  the  Imagination  reaches  what  is  not 
actual,  and  what  never  may  be,  as  when  it  recalls 
historical  events,  or  prophesies  the  future  advance- 
ment of  the  State.  The  only  pre-requisite  is,  that 
the  powers  be  used  honestly,  and  with  faithful  en- 
deavor, and  be  not  intentionally  perverted  and  mis- 
used. Then  enjoyment  follows  as  a  matter  of  course. 
— So  thorough  and  central  are  the  tendencies  to  Hap- 
piness infolded  in  the  soul !  As  in  the  robe  of  cloth 
of  gold,  each  crinkle  of  the  folds  reveals  the  bright- 
ness, so  in  this  spiritual  nature  of  ours,  which  God 
hath  planned  and  carefully  organized,  each  motion  of 
the  faculties,  if  healthful  and  sincere,  gives  a  fresh 
sense  of  pleasure. 

Certain  other  more  special  arrangements  and  adapt- 
ations at  the  same  time  meet  us  in  our  mental  con- 
stitution, which  show  how  God  provides  for  our  Happi- 
ness. Upon  these  I  can  hardly  enter  here ;  but  one 
or  two  of  them  may  be  briefly  noticed  as  examples 
of  the  rest.  It  is  a  curious  and  suggestive  fact,  for 
instance,  that  the  Fancy,  which  presents  to  us  the  im- 
ages of  things  unrealized  by  us,  communicates  pleasure 
not  only  in  connection  with  that  which  is  beautiful  or 
desirable  to  us,  but  equally  with  the  contemplation  of 
that  which  is  terrible,  and  of  that  which  applied  to 
ourselves  would  be  destructive.     In  our  wakeful  hours, 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  251 

and  in  a  healthful  and  natural  mental  state,  the  con- 
ception of  the  latter  is  not  frequent  with  us.  But 
even  when  it  comes,  it  is  attended  with  a  grateful 
impression  of  relief;:  because  the  danger  which  is  seen 
to  be  possible  has  not  become  actual,  and  by  the 
inner  law  of  the  soul  we  are  impelled  to  put  it  from 
us.  It  is  only  in  the  dreams  which  have  their  birth 
in  a  distempered  state  of  the  body,  or  else  amid  the 
frenzy  of  a  disordered  mind,  that  we  conceive  of  our- 
selves as  crushed,  torn  in  pieces,  pursued  by  wild 
beasts,  or  devoured  by  the  earthquake.  In  our  usual 
mental  state  we  can  hardly  force  the  volatile  fancy  to 
consider  such  possibilities  ;  but  when  it  does,  it  is  only 
to  enhance  our  pleasurable  sense  of  repose  and  secu- 
rity. Does  not  the  maxim  attributed  to  Rochefou- 
cault,  that  "  there  is  something  in  the  calamities  of 
our  best  friends  not  altogether  unpleasing  to  us,"  find 
here  the  explanation  of  aU  that  is  true  in  it?  We 
have  no  pleasure  in  the  thought  of  the  calamity ; 
but  the  more  vivid  and  startling  our  conception  of  that, 
the  more  grateful  is  the  sense  of  security  which  at- 
tends it. 

A  similar  adaptation  is  shown  by  the  Memory. 
It  is  not  only  true  that  the  very  exercise  of  re- 
calling what  is  past  in  our  experience,  supposing  the 
particulars  to  be  themselves  indifferent,  is  accompanied 
with  pleasure ;  but  it  is  true,  further,  that  the  recol- 


252  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

lection  of  a  pleasure  replaces  that  pleasure  in  our 
experience  with  almost  all  its  original  vividness : 
sometimes,  indeed,  with*  a  greater  vividness  and  ful- 
ness than  it  had  at  the  first.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  recollection  of  a  pain  endured-^unless,  indeed, 
it  had  an  element  of  guilt  in  it,  and  so  brought  re- 
morse— does  not  replace  that  pain  in  our  conscious- 
ness. It  is  accompanied  rather,  in  subsequent  life, 
when  the  pain  has  passed  away,  with  the  joyful 
sense  of  release  and  deliverance.  And  so,  according 
to  the  Eastern  proverb,  that  the  odor  of  carrion 
turns  to  musk  in  the  distance,  the  remembrance  of 
our  suffering,  when  this  is  over,  becomes  to  us  an  ad- 
ditional enjoyment. — In  these  slight  facts,  and  in 
others  similar  on  which  I  will  not  pause,  is  exhib- 
ited really  the  whole  benignant  economy  of  God  in 
the  structure  of  the  Soul.  Its  natural  bent  is  to- 
ward enjoyment,  not  toward  suffering.  He  gives  it 
such  an  equipoise,  such  a  dehcate  but  assured  ad- 
justment of  tendencies,  that  at  the  first  and  finest 
action  it  gravitates  toward  Happiness. 

Recurring  now  to  the  general  principle,  whose  ap- 
plication in  some  of  its  particulars  I  have  sketched, 
it  is  just  as  true  of  the  Affectionate  power,  of 
the  Will,  of  even  the  Conscience,  as  it  is  of  the 
purely  intellectual  faculties,  that  so  long  as  one  acts 
with  pure  intent   and   within  proper  limits,  according 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  253 

to  the  law  revealed  in  his  constitution,  their  exercise 
brings  an  immediate  pleasure ;  a  pleasure  not  out- 
wardly coupled  with  that  exercise,  as  the  train  is  me- 
chanically coupled  with  the  engine,  but  inseparably 
involved  in  it,  its  essential   concomitant. 

To  love,  with  a  purely  unselfish  attachment,  with 
such  love  as  the  soul  is  made  capable  of  experi- 
encing,— there  is  beauty  and  charm  in  this,  before 
that  love  is  made  known  to  its  object !  The  very  ex- 
ercise of  Gratitude  holds  enjoyment  in  it.  "  When  I 
revere  a  great  character,"  says  an  eminent  female 
Freilch  writer,  "  I  find  I  know  not  what  of  dehght 
in  my  heart.  It  is  beautiful  to  worship !"  And 
when  the  children  in  an  asylum  for  the  Deaf  and 
the  Dumb  were  asked  to  write  upon  their  slates  the 
name  of  that  mental  emotion  or  action  which  seemed 
to  each  the  most  delightful,  while  one  wrote  Hope, 
and  another  Gratitude,  and  another  the  Assurance  of 
Love  from  others,  a  little  girl,  with  subtler  sense  or 
a  deeper  experience  than  the  others  had  had,  wrote 
instantly  Repentance  !  No  matter  what  it  brings  us, 
or  whether  it  brings  us  nothing  at  all,  when  we  have 
done  wrong,  to  repent  is  delightful;  and  the  deeper 
the  emotion,  the  more  perfect  the  action,  the  more 
complete  is  the  joy. 

So  to  put  forth  the  Will,  for  any  high  object,  in 
the  nath  of  any  wise  and  just  undertaking,  is  always 


254  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

in  itself  a  source  of  pleasure.  Men  have  pleasure  in 
endurance,  which  is  resolute  and  firm,  as  well  as  in 
action ;  and  they  often  have  not  so  much  pleasure 
in  the  end,  after  that  has  been  attained,  as  in  the  use 
of  the  means  that  tended  toward  it.  Every  exercise 
of  the  faculty,  whether  successful  or  unsuccessful  as 
the  world  reckons  that,  holds  this  primary  success  in- 
folded in  it ;  and  it  cannot  be  severed  from  this  inter- 
wrought  reward.  And  so  the  application  and  use  of 
the  Conscience,  in  distinguishing  right  courses  and 
condemning  the  wrong, — except  when  it  scans  and 
adjudges  our  own  sins,  and  so  brings  remorse  with  it, — 
is  the  source  of  a  noble  spiritual  pleasure.  There  is 
perhaps  no  pleasure,  indeed,  more  positive  than  that 
which  thus  is  brought  us ;  when  the  soul  rests  firmly 
on  the  principles  of  equity,  and  distinguishes  clearly 
the  course  which  contravenes  these  from  that  which 
accepts  and  consistently  realizes  them. 

Throughout  the  Soul  the  principle  holds,  not  only 
that  a  sense  of  the  pleasure  of  being  is  innate  within 
it,  but  that  every  motion  and  act  of  its  powers,  while 
obeying  the  law  which  God  designs  for  them,  im- 
parts a  distinct  and  appreciable  pleasure.  As  the 
sandal-wood  gives  forth  its  fragrance  when  pressed  ;  as 
the  amber  becomes  attractive  while  we  rub  it;  so  all 
our  forces,  when  set  in  motion,  yield  us  true  enjoy- 
ment.    They  quicken  into  pleasure,  the  moment  they 


PREPARED    FOR    HAPPINESS.  255 

are  used.  And  yet  Repose,  when  proportionate  and 
timely,  becomes  in  its  turn  an  additional  joy ;  while  by 
it  our  faculties  are  also  refreshed  for  further  use. 

Remember,  then,  that  it  is  God  who  has  so  ordained 
us ;  that  we  are  tracing  the  Divine  constitution,  as  we 
ponder  this  frame  and  arrangement  of  the  soul;  and 
there  comes  to  us  a  new  demonstration  of  His  charac- 
ter. He  makes  this  Happiness  our  appropriate  state. 
No  mechanism  is  so  carefully  adjusted  for  its  end 
as  the  soul  is  for  this.  K  we  fail  to  attain  it,  our 
own  error  is  in  fault,  and  not  His  constitution.  And 
plainly  as  the  sunbeam  manifests  His  skill, — ^plainly 
as  the  leaves,  revolving  around  the  flower-stem  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  relations  of  distance  which  the  planets 
sustain  to  the  central  sun,  declare  His  all-encompass- 
ing plan — does  this  reveal  His  kindness  and  wisdom ! 

III.  A  third  fact  remains  to  be  considered,  however, 
to  set  the  whole  truth  concerning  this  before  us.  And 
that  is  :  that  the  Natural  Results  of  the  soul's  proper 
ACTION    ARE    ALL  Pleasure-producing  ;    and    that   those 

WHICH   are   so    most     FREELY   AND    RICHLY   LIE     NEAREST   ITS 

REACH,  and  are  certainly  attained  by  it  whenever  it 
acts  aright.  The  bearing  of  this  fact  on  our  present 
course  of  thought  is  instantly  evident.  That  it  2^  a 
fact,  no  one  who  carefully  considers  it,  I  think,  will 
question. 

Material  wealth   cannot   with    absolute   certainty  be 


256 


attained,  by  those  who  pursue  it.  Aside  from  par- 
ticular providential  impediments  which  may  be  inter- 
posed to  hinder  them  from  it,  any  one  of  a  series  of 
natural  calamities,  as  fire,  storm,  an  earthquake,  or  a 
pestilence,  may  wrest  it  from  them,  even  when  it  had 
seemed  secure  in  their  grasp.  The  failure  of  an  as- 
sociate, or  the  unfaithfulness  of  an  agent,  may  build 
a  barrier  of  seven-fold  height  between  them  and  their 
object.  Or  commercial  revulsions  may  sweep  the  very 
platform  and  basis  from  beneath  them,  upon  which 
they  were  standing  to  accumulate  a  fortune.  And  so 
it  often  happens, — we  see  the  illustrations  of  the  fact 
around  us,  on  every  hand — that  he  who  has  planned 
and  toiled  for  wealth,  with  youthful  ardor  and  manly 
vigor,  throughout  his  term  of  active  life,  finds  it  at 
the  end  like  the  golden  spoil  which  the  child  pursued 
at  the  foot  of  the  rainbow;  as  far  from  him  as  when 
he  started,  while  the  faculty  to  follow  it  has  grown 
constantly  weaker.  Despondency  succeeds  to  his  early 
expectation ;  and  in  a  sense  most  sad,  tragical,  and 
admonitory,  he  ^  dies  without  the  sight.' 

But  the  possession  of  wealth  is  not  necessarily  a 
good.  It  is  made  so,  if  at  all,  only  by  the  arbitrary 
agreement  of  men.  The  worth  of  it  is  at  best  fac- 
titious and  precarious ;  and  sometimes  it  becomes  to 
him  who  has  most  of  it  the  greatest  of  evils.  He 
finds  at  last,  when  he  has  gained  it,  that  he  has  been 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  257 

but  laboring  to  walk,  for  a  little  time,  with  pierced 
feet,  on  golden  spikes.  And  if  he  could  go  back  to 
the  simple  and  satisfying  joy  of  his  childhood,  he  would 
gladly  sacrifice  all  his  wealth  to  repurchase  that. 

The  same  is  true,  essentially,  of  all  social  advan- 
tages ;  of  an  eminent  position  in  civil  affairs  ;  of  any 
possession,  which  is  outward  and  adventitious.  Evi- 
dently, none  of  these  are  perennial  goods,  appropri- 
ate intrinsically  to  the  soul  which  is  spiritual,  capable 
of  administering  true  Happiness  to  it,  of  satisfying 
its  wants,  and  of  replenishing  it  with  real  pleasure. 
We  share  them,  if  we  gain  them,  with  the  criminal 
adventurer;  or  with  the  half-idiotic,  who  was  fortunately- 
born.  They  perish  with  the  using,  and  do  not  abide. 
In  our  highest  states  of  feeling — those  which  certify 
themselves,  the  moment  we  regard  them,  as  most  ap- 
propriate to  our  powers  and  our  destinies — we  spurn 
these  from  us  as  ends  of  our  effort;  as  any  thing 
more  than  subordinate  means  to  the  attainment  of 
ends  far  grander  than  themselves.  Men  have  some- 
times lived  without  any  thing  of  them,  in  constant 
joy.  They  have  often  lived  with  them,  in  an  unsuf- 
ferable  pain. 

The  true  goods  are  internal,  pertaining  to  the  very 

state   and  frame  of  the  soul,  and  fitted  to  afford  it  a 

permanent   satisfaction.      And    the    noticeable   fact  is 

that  'every  one  may  attain  these,  in  the  just  and  legiti- 

17 


'* 


268 


mate  use  of  his  powers ;  that  each  sincere  operation 
of  the  soul  involves  tendencies  towards  them ;  and 
that  no  calamities  or  convulsions  of  nature,  no  revul- 
sion in  affairs,  no  assaults  of  society,  can  dissever 
one  from  them,  or  make  them  otherwise  than  pro- 
ductive of  pleasure. 

Knowledge  is  one  of  these ;  the  perception,  the  in- 
telligent mastery  and  appropriation,  of  the  principles 
of  Truth.  And  the  pleasure  which  this  gives,  while 
men  must  experience  it  to  fully  understand  it,  is  so 
evident  in  life,  so  conspicuous  in  history,  that  none  can 
overlook  it.  Galileo,  condemned  to  the  prisons  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  compelled  to  repeat,  with  bended 
knee  and  prostrate  head,  the  penitential  psalms  of 
David,  feels  yet  an  inward  pleasure  and  repose  un- 
known in .  the  Vatican.  The  heavenly  bodies,  of 
whose  motions  he  is  certain,  shed  that  music  around 
him  which  the  ancient  listener  on  hills  overhung  by 
milder  skies  could  not  clearly  hear.  The  moon, 
whose  rough  and  jagged  surface  his  eye  has  first 
scanned,  walks  nightly  above  his  soul,  lifting  unto 
herself  in  peaceful  sway  his  tides  of  thought.  The 
pendulum,  the  thermometer,  the  magnet,  the  telescope, 
these,  which  he  has  invented  or  largely  improved,  and 
applied  to  their  noblest  and  most  renowned  uses, 
come  around  him  in  his  cell  with  a  ministry  of  com- 
fort that    cannot    be   expelled.     And   when  blin'dness 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  259 

and  deafness,  with  an  exquisite  suffering  loading  each 
muscle,  have  made  his  days  almost  useless,  and  his 
nights  almost  sleepless,  still  the  vigilant  and  unwea- 
ried activity  of  his  mind,  repeating  those  processes 
which  no  prison  can  confine  and  no  pains  disturb, 
is  his  unfailing  rest.  The  certainty  of  truth,  makes 
his  soul  invulnerable.  The  stability  of  truth  is  its 
immoveable  shelter.  E  pur  si  muove^  he  may  say  not 
only  of  the  Earth,  but  of  his  conscious  pleasure. 

When  Augustine  Thierry,  having  withdrawn  him- 
self from  the  world  and  retired  to  his  library,  to 
investigate  the  origin,  the  causes  and  the  effects,  of 
the  early  and  successive  Germanic  invasions,  and, 
having  passed  six  years  ^in  poring  with  the  perti- 
nacity of  a  Benedictine  monk  over  worm-eaten  man- 
uscripts, and  deciphering  and  comparing  black-ktter 
texts,'  had  at  last  completed  his  magnificent  '-'His- 
tory of  the  Conquest,"  the  publication  of  which  intro- 
duced a  new  era  in  French  historical  composition,  he 
had  lost  his  sight.  The  most  precious  of  tli^e  senses 
had  been  sacrificed  to  his  zeal  in  literary  research. 
The  beauties  of  nature,  and  the  records  of  scholar- 
ship, were  thenceforth  shut  from  him ;  and  he  was 
compelled  to  use  other  hands,  and  other  eyes,  to  as- 
sist his  future  efforts.  Prodigious  sacrifice  !  And 
yet  not  such  he  thought  it;  for  he  said  long  after- 
ward,   in  a  letter    to   a   friend :    "  Were   I   to   begin 


26p  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

my  life  over  again,  I  would  choose  the  road  that 
has  conducted  me  to  where  I  now  am.  Blind  and 
afflicted,  without  hope  and  without  leisure,  I  can 
safely  offer  this  testimony,  the  sincerity  of  which, 
coming  from  a  man  in  my  condition,  cannot  be 
called  in  question.  There  is  something  in  this  world 
worth  more  than  pleasure,  more  than  fortune,  more 
than   health  itself;    I  mean  devotion  to  science  !" 

One  of  the  most  interesting  passages  in  modern 
literary  History, — a  passage  that  will  become  more 
bright  and  impressive,  as  the  glare  of  the  material 
success  and  advance  which  now  dazzle  our  land  fades 
back  into  shadow — is  that  in  which  the  great  Ornithol- 
ogist of  our  time,  Avhom  Cuvier  you  know  declared 
to  have  reared  in  his  work  on  birds  Hhe  most  mag- 
nificent monument  ever  yet  raised  by  art  in  honor 
of  nature,'  met  the  sudden  destruction,  by  the  vora- 
city of  rats,  of  the  treasures  he  had  accumulated  in 
fifteen  years  of  incessant  exploration.  At  the  shock 
of  what  seemed  the  irremediable  disaster,  he  was 
thrown  into  a  fever,  which  had  well-nigh  proved  fa- 
tal. ^A  burning  heat,'  as  he  described  it,  *  rushed 
through  my  brain ;  and  my  days  were  oblivion.'  But 
as  consciousness  returned,  and  the  rally  of  nature 
fought  back  the  sudden  incursion  of  disease,  there 
Bang  again  through  his  wakening  thoughts  the  wild- 
n^es  he   had  heard   in  the  bayous  of   Louisiana,  the 


PREPARED  FOR  HAPPINESS.       261 

everglades  of  Florida,  the  savannahs  of  the  Carolinas, 
and  the  forests  that  fringe  the  sides  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  He  saw  again  the  Washington  Eagle,  as  it 
soared  and  screamed  from  its  far  rocky  eyrie.  He 
startled  again,  from  her  perch  on  the  firs,  the  brown 
warbler  of  Labrador.  He  traced  in  thought  the 
magic  hues  on  crest  and  wing  that  so  often  had 
shone  before  the  dip  of  his  rifle.  And  the  passion 
for  new  expeditions  and  discoveries,  arising  afresh,  was 
more  to  him  than  medicine.  In  three  years  more, 
passed  far  from  home,  he  had  filled  once  more  the 
despoiled  portfolios ;  and  at  every  step,  as  he  told 
his  biographer,  '  it  was  not  the  desire  of  fame  that 
prompted  him:  it  was  his  exceeding  enjoyment  of 
Nature  !* 

In  what  multitudes  of  histories  has  the  same  thing 
been  illustrated  ;  the  unfailing  joy  and  reward  of 
Knowledge !  Have  not  we  ourselves  felt  it  ?  when 
some  principle  of  science  has  been  clearly  set  before 
us,  in  its  nature  and  its  relations,  and  has  been  with 
delight  accepted  by  us,  in  a  thorough  conviction  of 
its  firmness  and  its  value  ?  when  a  character  in  his- 
tory has  been  opened  fully  and  brightly  to  our  thoughts, 
and  the  events  of  an  era  have  taken  from  that  iQus- 
tration  and  a  meaning?  when  the  verities  which 
Christ  teaches  have  become  to  us  certainties;  the 
inmost   certainties  of  experience  and   life,  the  highest 


262  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

certainties  of  philosophy  and  of  the  Future  ?  A  sense 
of  advancement,  of  strength,  and  of  dignity,  an  inward 
repose  and  happiness  of  soul,  are  inseparably  connected 
with  the  attainment  of  Knowledge.  And  these  are 
open  to  every  man  :  since  every  man  may  attain  such 
knowledge,  in  one  department  or  another,  if  he  will 
apply  his  faculty  to  the  work.  There  is  no  uncer- 
tainty connected  with  the  gain ;  and  when  he  has 
made  it  there  is  no  insecurity.  It  is  his  in  perma- 
nence. 

Nor  is  this  the  onl^  or  the  highest  source  of  joy 
which  is  opened  to  the  soul  by  the  right  and  un- 
selfish employment  of  its  powers ;  which  lies  in  fact 
so  constantly  near  these,  that  each  appropriate  exer- 
cise of  them  brings  them  up  to  it  again,  and  makes 
them  partake  it.  The  Esteem  and  Approbation  of  those 
who  are  virtuous,  the  Sympathetic  Love  of  those  who 
in  constitution  and  in  character  are  like  it,  are  as 
directly  and  certainly  attained  by  every  Soul  whose 
powers  are  used  with  frank  sincerity,  and  with  an 
honest  reverence  for  Virtue. 

As  the  light  is  rayed  back  from  the  flower  and 
the  wave,  from  the  rock  and  the  roadside,  from  all 
objects  in  nature  and  all  ornaments  of  art,  no  matter 
from  what  centre  it  emanated  first,  so  the  excel- 
lence of  a  character,  when  serenely  and  brightly  ex- 
pressed through   the   life,   attracts   an  immediate   and 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  263 

instinctive  response,  from  all  natures  around  it.  This 
will  vary  in  expression,  according  to  the  quality  of 
these  several  natures;  but  it  will  not  fail  to  be  ren- 
dered by  each  one.  And  as  the  answer  of  the  rose 
to  the  appeal  of  the  light  is  one  of  clearest  bloom 
and  beauty,  so  the  answer  of  the  virtuous  to  the  excel- 
lence of  a  character  must  be  one  of  approval ;  as  the 
diamond  kindles  in  its  response  to  an  intense  bril- 
liance, so  the  souls  that  are  subtle  and  sympathetically 
prepared  for  it  show  this  general  approval  exchanged 
in  themselves  for  a  vivid  and  precious  personal  love. 
This  is  not  accidental;  a  merely  occasional  or  indi- 
vidual experience.  It  is  made  inevitable,  and  made 
universal,  by  the  frame  of  our  being.  So  that  the 
generous  use  of  our  powers  hath  ahoays  this  reward, 
of  the  sympathy  and  approval  of  those  whom  we 
esteem ;  and  our  personal  qualities,  when  manifested 
appropriately  toward  those  who  are  like  us,  bring 
naturally  the  return  of  their  cordial  affection. 

There  is  even  an  intimation  afforded  by  Philoso- 
phy,— ^it  becomes  a  distinct  declaration  and  promise, 
you  are  aware,  in  Religion — that  as  there  are  exist- 
ences above  us,  created  by  the  same  author,  and  kin- 
dred with  us;  as  there  is  one  uncreated  Existence, 
the  maker  of  all  others,  who  is  Himself  at  once  most 
holy  and  most  sympathetic, — so  the  human  approba- 
tion and   love  which  we  here  meet,  attracted   by  the 


264  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

proper  employment  of  our  powers,  is  only  the  adum- 
bration of  a  similar  experience,  far  higher  in  its  kind, 
and  eternal  in  its  continuance,  which  awaits  us  in 
the  Future.  The  love  of  other  beings,  the  infinite, 
pure,  unspeakable  affection  of  the  Deity  himself,  shall 
reply  to  such  action,  as  there  exhibited,  with  un- 
bounded fulness,  and  through  endless  duration.  For  in 
the  immortal  state,  as  in  this  mortal,  it  shall  still  be 
true  that  each  pure  action  tends  directly  to  this  re- 
sult ;  by  the  law  of  the  souFs  being,  it  secures  this 
reward. 

And  what  returns  of  true  pleasure  are  brought  us 
by  this  reward,  when  fully  attained,  I  need  not  set 
forth  with  any  thing  of  detail.  Prisons,  brightened 
by  its  experience  as  by  a  true  angelic  presence; 
households,  filled  with  the  fragrance  that  steals  as 
a  perpetual  blessing  from  its  fine  casket;  our  hearts, 
which  all  have  known  and  felt  it; — these  are  its  wit- 
nesses !  It  takes  the  pain  from  sore  disaster.  It 
gives  a  fresh  and  keener  joy  to  all  prosperity.  It 
makes  the  cottage,  secreted  in  the  vines,  a  more  than 
palace  to  the  heart.  It  gives  to  every  spot  of  ground 
where  we  have  known  it  a  hallowing  memory.  The 
charm  of  Earth,  it  still  casts  forward  its  light  upon  the 
Future,  and  makes  the  heavens  shine  lovelier  than  be- 
fore in  promise  of  its  renewal.  There  is  no  other 
joy  more  pure  and   stimulating,  more  vivid  and  more 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  265 

rich,    that    penetrates   the    soul    with    more    intimate 
power,  that  adds  more  vital  vigor  to  it. 

And  it  is  a  signal  demonstration  of  our  Author, 
that  this  great  good,  which  cannot  be  purchased  by 
millions  for  the  selfish,  which  no  assault  of  power  can 
control,  which  diplomacy  cannot  dispense,  and  which 
genius  itself  if  malevolent  cannot  reach,  is  made  to 
attend  the  right  use  of  our  powers,  how  humble  so- 
ever, as  the  air  attends  the  earth !  The  spoils  of 
ransacked  cities  cannot  buy  one  human  sympathy. 
The  generous  use  of  any  faculty,  though  it  be  of  the 
slave,  though  it  be  of  the  criminal,  attracts  such  sym- 
pathies with  immediate  certainty,  from  all  fine  na- 
tures. No  man  can  be  sure  that  he  shall  gain  any 
of  the  prizes  of  ambition,  though  he  seek  them  with 
never  so  eager  an  endeavor.  But  every  man  may 
know,  and  every  child,  that  if  he  live  thoughtfully, 
purely,  efficiently,  according  to  the  law  which  his 
Maker  designed  for  him,  devoting  his  powers  to  ends 
that  are  worthy,  the  approbation  of  all  who  are  qual- 
ified to  give  that  shall  become  his  inheritance;  the 
quick  affection  of  those  elect  souls  which  are  kindred 
with  his,  shall  set  its  vivid  crown  upon  him.  Accord- 
ing to  the  truth  and  generosity  of  his  spirit,  far  more 
than  according  to  the  greatness  of  his  power,  the 
world  shall  retain  both  his  influence  and  his  memory. 
And   according  to  these,  in  constant   proportion,  shall 


266  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

be  that  Love  which  is  ^  bride  of  Virtue,  and  mother 
of  Pleasure/ 

Nor  is  this  the  last  source  of  true  spiritual  happi- 
ness, which  is  opened  to  the  soul  by  its  own  pure 
action.  Conscientious  Satisfaction,  and  Self-Approval; 
the  inward  sense  of  security  and  peace ;  come  at  least 
as  directly  from  the  earnest  and  just  use  of  our 
spiritual  powers.  And  the  joy  which  these  give,  I  need 
not  describe.  It  is  special  to  man,  and  to  those  who 
are  above  him ;  for  lower  beings  cannot  attain  it.  But 
in  man  it  is  often  developed  to  a  degree  that  makes 
the  experience  most  conspicuous  and  memorable. 

When  Socrates,  condemned  by  the  vicious  tribunal, 
and  commanded  to  choose  his  own  mode  of  destruc- 
tion, declared  with  untrembling  and  unhesitating  voice 
that  he  merited  rather  to  be  honored  as  a  benefactor 
than  to  be  judged  as  a  criminal,  he  showed  this  in- 
ward self-approval  untroubled.  What  a  lustre  it  sheds 
on  that  abrupt  close,  which  Plato  has  commemorated 
with  such  tragic  fidelity !  The  sacred  galley,  whose 
return  was  to  fix  the  limit  of  his  life,  paced  not  the 
glittering  seas  so  lightly  as  he  the  floor  of  that 
coarse  dungeon.  Above  the  malice  of  enemies  and 
the  popular  hatred,  not  needing  even  the  support  of 
the  love  of  those  who  clung  to  him,  with  so  settled 
a  peace  that  the  offer  of  deliverance  could  not  dis- 
turb   it,    he   makes   the   dungeon  a  pedestal   grander 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  267 

than  architect  ever  builded,  and  draws  the  eyes  of 
nations  to  him.  And  when  he  drank  the  fatal  hem- 
lock, the  sun  himself,  sinking  just  then  behind  Ci- 
thaeron,  was  not  more  full  in  his  great  orb  of  light 
and  peace ! 

So  Russell,  Sidney,  died  in  their  time.  So,  with 
yet  higher  enthusiasm  of  joy,  died  Polycarp  of 
Smyrna;  died  Chrysostom  first,  and  Martyn  after- 
wards, now  sleeping  side  by  side  amid  the  rocky 
wastes  of  Tocat.  Observe  the  unspeakable  happiness 
and  peace  that  brighten  through  the  Past  along  the 
line  of  God's  true  workmen,  that  burst  oftentimes  to 
most  glorious  exhibition  amid  the  very  flames  of  mar- 
tyrdom; nay,  note  in  yourself,  in  far  humbler  devel- 
opement,  what  an  exquisite  pleasure  one  good  deed 
done,  with  effort  and  with  sacrifice,  sheds  back  upon 
the  soul,  how  it  seems  to  renew  that  with  a  joy  that 
holds  a  second  life; — and  you  see  what  must  be  the 
inestimable  peace  of  a  life  all  occupied,  as  one  may 
be,  with  such !  The  harmony  of  mechanism,  made 
perfect  in  its  parts,  and  working  smoothly  in  every 
motion,  fails  to  set  this  before  us  by  even  an  image. 
That  is  passive.  This  is  active,  keen,  self-conscious. 
It  glows  through  the  soul  as  the  perfect  experience 
of  health  through  the  frame.  Calm,  full,  and  pure, 
perennial  in  its  movement,  and  mighty  in  its  course, 
reflecting  Heaven  on  its  serene  unshadowed  wave — in 


i268  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

the  perfect  and  noble  description  of  the  Bible,  ^'it 
floweth  like  a  river  !" 

And  this  is  a  result  inseparable,  under  God's  con- 
stitution of  the  soul,  from  the  exercise  of  our  pow- 
ers in  appropriate  modes^  according  to  the  paramount 
law  of  Virtue.  Its  clear  mobility  is  not  more  native 
to  the  fluent  stream,  its  glancing  splendor  to  the 
flame,  than  is  this  peace  to  each  pure  Soul. — Con- 
template, then,  again,  God's  arrangement  for  its  Hap- 
piness !  He  makes  the  very  sense  of  existence  a 
joy  to  it.  He  associates  indissolubly,  with « each  exer- 
cise of  its  powers,  an  instant,  fit,  and  inter-wrought 
pleasure.  He  makes  the  results  of  its  appropriate  ac- 
tion, the  fruits  which  are  reached  by  it,  productive 
of  pure  and  constant  delight. 

On  every  side,  He  perfects  it  for  Happiness ;  re- 
quiring only  the  condition  of  Virtue  to  the  .fullest 
attainment  and  possession  of  this.  As  the  star  is 
made  for  shining;  as  the  wind-harp  on  the  threshold 
for  catching  from  the  air  its  inaudible  voices,  and 
sending  them  forth  to  animate  the  house ;  so  the  soul 
is  constituted  to  receive  and  to  utter  the  messages  of 
■joy.  The  cells  which  the  bee  builds,  those  miracles 
of  masonry,  are  not  more  exactly  adapted  to  their 
office,  of  receiving  and  storing  their  grateful  burdens, 
than  are  the  tubes  and  vatves  and  ducts  of  our  spir- 
^        itual  nature  for  the  ingathering  of  enjoyment.     Every 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  269 

virtuous  success  supplies  this  afresh,  while  endurance 
gives  a  joy  often  greater  than  success.  As  we  gain 
more  dignity  and  power  of  soul,  still  using  it  purely, 
we  gain  more  happiness  ;  and  the  limit  of  this  prog- 
ress is  just  as  distant,  and  just  as  imperceptible,  as 
the  limit  of  our  moral  or  rational  developement.  We 
know  that  it  is  not  reached  in  this  life.  We  believe 
that  the  cycles  of  the  Future  shall  not  bring  it. 

Man  is  free,  indeed,  to  use  or  to  misuse  the  pow- 
ers which  thus  are  given  him ;  to  use  them  rightly  or 
use  them  wrongly,  or  altogether  to  neglect  them  and 
leave  them  to  idleness.  For  this  very  freedom  is  in- 
dispensable to  his  deepest  and  perfect  enjoyment. 
He  could  not  rise  above  animal  pleasures,  except  for 
this.  He  may  wreck  therefore,  if  he  will,  as  such 
multitudes  do,  every  costliest  hope,  and  dissolve  the 
pearl  of  his  finest  sensibility  in  a  stimulating  indulg- 
ence, or  a  sour  misanthropy.  But  he  may  also  rise, 
as  such  multitudes  have  done,  by  a  healthful  and  vir- 
tuous use  of  his  powers,  to  this  pleasure,  interior, 
peaceful,  perfect,  as  superior  to  all  pleasures  of  mere 
animal  existence  as  the  spirit  is  better  than  the  body 
which  surrounds  it. 

The  only  impediments  which  hinder  or  interrupt 
such  a  pleasurable  career,  come  either  from  his  own 
wrong  employment  of  his  powers,  or  else  from  the 
wrong  acts    of  others  which  assail  him,   or    else  from 


270 


the  sorrows  inseparable  from  a  state  which  is  disci- 
plinary like  this,  and  designed  to  prepare  him  for  a 
higher  existence.  And  neither  of  these,  if  he  live 
aright,  can  overcome  or  break  his  joy. — He  may  tri- 
umph over  outward  impoverishment  and  wrong,  how- 
ever malicious  the  blow  that  hurls  them  on  him,  in 
the  beautiful  mastery  of  a  soul  aroused  by  the  very 
assault,  and  rising  in  native  supremacy  above  it.  He 
may  triumph  over  sorrows  which  originate  within  him, 
by  removing  with  patient  fidelity  their  cause.  And 
if  he  meets  with  cheerful  submission  the  various 
providential  visitations  of  trouble,  if  he  does  not  con- 
front them  with  defiant  resistance  but  takes  them 
as  clouded  messengers  from  a  Father,  as  a  true  love 
will  prompt  him,  and  transforms  them  by  this  accept- 
ance into  helpers  of  his  Virtue,  he  may  gain  by 
means  of  them  a  more  lofty  and  copious  spiritual 
happiness  than  was  possible  in  Paradise. 

The  stream  is  not  marred,  it  is  made  only  more 
beautiful,  when  broken  by  rocks,  and  sweeping  through 
eddies,  than  when  silently  gliding  through  the  sod- 
ded canal.  And  so  the  happiness  which  is  found  in 
a  course  passed  amid  the  conditions  that  invest  us 
in  this  life,  may  be  only  brighter,  more  full  and 
more  animated,  for  its  very  interruptions.  The  pleas- 
ure shall  be  more  radiant  than  ever,  when  contrast- 
ing   the    darkness    of  an  overpast  sorrow.      And   the 


PREPARED     FOR    HAPPINESS.  271 

infinite  liberty,  the  matchless  repose  and  tranquility 
of  mind,  which  result  from  the  cordial  acquiescence 
of  our  wills  in  the  Will  of  the  Supreme,  and  which 
never  are  attained  till  we  heartily  feel  this,  shall  a 
thousand-fold  more  than  compensate  the  soul  for  all 
the  disturbance  that  trouble  has  brought  it. 

If  one  developes  and  uses  aright,  therefore,  his 
various  powers,  according  to  the  plan  of  Him  who 
created  them,  his  inheritance  of  Happiness  shall  be  cer- 
tain, indefeasible,  as  well  as  signally  opulent  and  free. 
Every  sense  shall  be  an  almoner  of  enjoyment  to 
him.  The  taste,  the  judgment,  the  imaginative  power, 
affections,  free  will,  the  conscience  itself,  shall  all 
and  always  replenish  his  pleasures.  As  he  reaps  the 
results  of  them,  in  knowledge,  in  the  love  and  ap- 
proval of  others,  and  in  self-approbation,  each  one  of 
these  shall  successively  open  in  the  soul,  as  fast  as 
he  gains  it,  like  a  flower  filled  full  with  perfume  and 
with  beauty.  The  s5ul  shall  be  happy,  throughout 
its  powers,  throughout,  its  continuance.  And  the 
World,  subdued  and  employed,  not  obeyed  by  it, 
shall  be  a  broader  arena  for  that  enjoyment,  the  hard 
bed  of  toil  its  more  secure  throne,  than  the  garden 
with  verdurous  banks  and  bowers  which  bloomed  to 
embosom  an  undisciplined  innocence  ! 

I  have  spoken  not  at  all,  you  notice,  in  the  course 
of  this   Lecture,  of  some   parts   of  our   nature  which 


272  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

might  properly  have  been  canvassed.  I  have  not  en- 
tered the  region  of  the  Desires.  I  have  not  touched 
upon  the  instinct  of  Hope ;  which  holds  a  joy  within 
itself;  which  anticipates,  accumulates,  and  prolongs 
the  enjoyment  derived  from  other  goods.  I  have  spo- 
ken not  at  all  of  the  effect  of  the  bright-eyed  Fancy 
upon  our  pleasures ;  making  the  simple  and  the  usual 
charming,  intensifying  the  familiar,  and  giving  to 
the  daily  experience  of  life  prismatic  vivacity.  I 
have  not  delineated  any  special  constitution,  in  which 
cheerfulness,  mirthfulness,  or  humor  predominates,  and 
where  therefore  we  might  look  for  a  keener  enjoy- 
ment. I  have  aimed  to  confine  myself  to  the  barest, 
most  literal  analysis  of  the  soul,  in  those  aptitudes 
and  faculties  which  all  will  admit  universal  with  in 
it.  And  yet  it  is  clear  that  every  soul  hath  fit- 
nesses for  Happiness  most  subtle  and  complete.  It 
is  organized  to  gain  that;  and  it  cannot  employ  its 
faculties  aright,  it  cannot  develope  the  forces  and  the 
tendencies  innate  in  its  being,  under  the  law  of  Vir- 
tuous Love,  without  reaching  this  success.  It  rises 
to  this  good,  which  all  the  world  covets,  which  Po- 
etry celebrates,  which  the  angels  partake — ^it  rises  to 
this,  when  used  aright,  as  natively  as  the  sky-lark 
into  his  song ! 

Man   makes    his    own   sorrow,    by   the  fever   which 
he   breeds  at  the   heart  of  his  being;  by  the  courses 


PREPARED     FOR     HAPPINESS.  273 

of  indulgence  and  passion  which  he  follows.  But  God 
has  given  him  the  faculty  and  capacity,  and  has  opened 
to  him  the  means,  of  a  joy  serene,  independent  of  cir- 
cumstances, and  enduring  as  life ;  a  joy  so  high  that 
the  utmost  pleasure  of  his  noblest  hour  shall  be  only 
the  index  of  all  its  experience;  a  joy  so  permanent 
that  the  revolutions  of  the  years  shall  not  be  reckoned 
beside  it.  This  is  only  to  be  gained  on  condition  of 
his  Virtue ;  for  it  could  not  otherwise  manifest  to  us 
the  Infinitely  Pure.  But  on  that  condition  it  cer- 
tainly, freely,  constantly  comes,  in  accordance  with 
man's  constitution  of  being,  and  in  perfect  correspond- 
ence with  its  permanent  fitnesses. 

In  all  that  constitution,  then,  is  not  the  mind  of 
our  Author  revealed  to  us,  in  most  vivid  distinct- 
ness? I  take  the  pleasure  which  the  senses  afford; 
I  take  the  joy  wliich  the  intellect  brings  us ;  I  add 
the  delight  of  the  social  affections  ;  and  superadd  the 
peace  of  a  conscience  at  rest;  I  think  of  knowledge, 
love,  self-approval,  aU  realized  by  the  Soul  when  it 
normally  acts,  and  all  communicating  an  unwasting 
pleasure;  I  remember  that  each  of  these  several  ex- 
periences is  possible  to  the  humblest;  that  the  great 
Soul  of  Man  has  capacity  for  them,  universally  and 
by  birthright,  and  wherever  it  is  may  certainly  gain 
them ;  and  then  I  feel  that  the  wisdom,  the  good- 
ness, and  the  power  of  Him   who  framed  this  Spirit, 


18 


274  THEHUMANSOUL. 

SO  sensitive,  so  capacious, — which  the  Earth  can  de- 
light, which  the  Heavens  cannot  crowd — have  here 
an  exhibition  in  comparison  of  whose  glory  the  suns 
grow  dim.  As  in  a  glass,  I  read  in  this  our  won- 
drous frame  that-  perfect  Mind,  the  touch  of  which 
irradiates  the  creation,  and  the  vision  of  which  makes 
the  Seraphim  sing! 


'f 


LECTURE   VI. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

In  commencing  the  last  preceding  Lecture,  I 
remarked  that  there  stiU  remained  two  ideal  goods, 
by  its  relation  to  which  we  must  measure  and  esti- 
mate the  Human  Soul,  in  order  to  gather  all  the 
lessons  which  it  brings  us  concerning  the  character 
and  the  power  of  its  Creator.  The  one  of  these  was 
Happiness;  and  the  other,  an  Exalted  and  Progress- 
ive Future  Destiny.  Having  considered  the  soul  in 
its  spiritual  life,  invisible  in  each,  yet  personal  and 
transcendent;  in  its  constitutional  capacity  for  Knowl- 
edge, for  the  exercise  of  Virtue,  and  for  the  putting 
forth  of  Virtuous  and  Beneficent  Operation,  on  the 
world  around  it  and  on  other  persons;  it  was  only 
needful  further  to  consider  it  in  these  two  aspects, 
to  see  from  every  side  the  illustrations  which  it  gives 
of  the  greatness  and  the  kindness  of  Him  who  hath 
formed  it.  If  it  be  found  not  only  naturally  capa- 
cious of  these  goods,  but  interiorly  prepared  to  pur- 
sue and  to  attain  them,  then  the  Mind  which  has 
planned  it,   and  has  given  it  its   forces,  is  set  before 


276  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

US  in  clearest  light,  and  the  capital  is  put  on  the  col- 
umn of  our  argument. 

In  the  former  of  these  relations  I  therefore  pre- 
sented this  conscious  Soul,  in  the  Lecture  referred  to ; 
and  endeavored  to  show  you  how  God  has  wisely  and 
patiently  prepared  it  for  the  attainment  of  Happiness. 
He  has  made  a  subtle  yet  appreciable  enjoyment  in- 
separable from  its  inmost  consciousness  of  being ;  the 
mere  sense  of  existence  •  bringing  with  it,  involved  in 
it,  an  intimate  pleasure.  He  has  so  organized  it  that 
every  motion  and  exercise  of  its  powers,  as  long  as 
.that  is  virtuous,  produces  a  new  pleasure,  without 
reference  to  the  secondary  ends  which  it  may  gain; 
and  thus  the  taste,  the  judgment,  the  imagination,  the 
social  affections,  the  very  conscience  itself,  are  made 
perpetual  occasions  and  springs  of  enjoyment  in  every 
healthful  and  virtuous  spirit.  Their  very  use  is  their 
constant  reward,  so  long  as  they  are  properly  devel- 
oped and  exercised ;  while  at  times  they  give  a  hap- 
piness vivid  and  memorable,  such  as  no  successes  of 
ambition  can  rival. 

All  those  results  and  fruits  of  its  action,  too,  which 
are  in  the  truest  sense  enjoyable  and  of  value,  lie 
within  the  reach  of  every  soul.  They  stand  next  our 
powers,  and  are  instantly  and  with  certainty  realized 
by  us  in  the  legitimate  use  of  these.  Among  them 
are :   the   acquisition   of   knowledge ;    the   approbation 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.  277 

of  the  virtuous,  with  the  personal  love  of  those  who 
in  character  as  well  as  in  constitution  are  sympathet- 
ically affined  to  us ;  and  that  solid  sense  of  eleva- 
tion and  security,  which  Virtue  imparts. — These  are 
spiritual  and  indefeasible  gains ;  not  dependent  upon 
the  accidents  of  position  and  circumstance,  not  liable 
to  fail  when  we  most  require  them,  but  certain  at 
once,  spontaneously,  to  accrue  to  all  who  use  their 
powers  aright,  and  certain  to  remain  while  such  use 
continues ;  of  which  the  vigorous  and  virtuous  soul 
can  no  more  be  deprived  than  the  sunbeam  of  the 
heat  which  in  the  mysterious  constitution  of  its-  ray  is 
inseparably  inter-twisted  with  its  illuminating  power. 

And  these  are  the  sources,  to  those  who  possess 
them,  of  a  Happiness  pure,  abounding,  and  perennial; 
a  Happiness  in  comparison  of  which  all  the  pleasures 
of  sense,  or  of  titular  rank,  or  of  accumulated  wealths, 
are  transient  and  imaginary.  The  servant  may  gain 
them,  as  well  as  the  statesman.  The  widow  in  her 
loneliness  has  them  often  in  a  perfection  which  the 
conqueror,  the  discoverer,  or  the  man  of  vast  riches, 
knows  nothing  about.  The  most  eminent  and  signal 
attainments  in  them  have  not  been  made  by  those 
most  'fortunate'. in  inheritance  and  position,  or  most 
conspicuous  in  the  annals  of  History. 

It  is  evident  then,  beyond  denial  I  think,  that 
the  Soul  is  so  organized  by  Him*  who  hath  given  it 


278 


life  and  force,  that  Happiness  is  a  good  accessible  to 
its  effort,  and  which  in  largest  measure  it  may  secure. 
With  a  singular  wisdom  He  has  fitted  it  to  gain  this ; 
requiring  only,  as  the  necessary  condition,  which  His 
purity  demands,  and  without  which  His  wisdom  that 
consults  for  the  universe  could  not  be  satisfied,  that 
it  put  forth  its  powers  under  the  paramount  law  of 
Virtue.  So  long  as  it  does  this,  true  Happiness  comes 
to  it  as  a  matter  of  course;  as  the  blossom  comes, 
and  the  fruit  in  its  season,  from  the  living  energy  of 
the  fruit-bearing  tree.  It  is  only  when  God's  consti- 
tution is  traversed,  when  our  powers  are  unused  or 
else  are  perverted,  that  unhappiness  prevails  in  our 
sensitive  constitution.  Outside  of  this  experience,  the 
trials  that  meet  us  by  appointment  of  God  are  disci- 
plinary only;  and  if  mastered  as  they  may  be,  and 
rightly  employed,  in  the  spirit  of  virtuous  submission 
and  love,  they  shall  by  their  contrasts  but  add  to 
our  pleasure ;  as  summer-showers,  refracting  light, 
make  rainbows  of  the  rays  that  else  had  glanced  in 
imperceptible  beauty  unseen  through  the  skies. 

Here  then  we  see  illustriously  displayed  both  the 
goodness  and  the  wisdom,  and  the  infinite  construct- 
ive spiritual  force,  of  Him  who  hath  formed  us ! 
More  brightly  than  in  the  blush  of  the  rose;  more 
musically  than  in  the  carol  of  the  bird ;  with  more 
appealing  and  memorable  emphasis  than  in  the  struct- 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   279 

ure  of  mountains  or  continents,  or  in  the  eternal 
diapasons  of  the  deep ;  is  exhibited  in  the  living  and 
personal  soul,  so  receptive  of  Happiness,  and  so  fitted 
to  secure  it,  the  perfection  of  its  Author ! 

We  are  now  to  go  forward,  then,  in  this  closing 
Lecture  to-  consider  the  one  remaining  topic,  under 
the  general  theme  which  has  engaged  us ; — the  ca- 
pacities of  the  Soul  for  a  great  Elevation  and  Ad- 
vancement IN  the  Future.  Having  trodden  the  round, 
in  the  range  of  our  discussion,  of  the  ideal  goods 
presented  to  us  in  our  present  state  of  being,  we  are 
ready  to  project  our  thoughts  into  the  Future,  beyond 
the  reach  of  present  or  recorded  human  experience,  to 
conceive  the  attainments  which  are  possible  therein, 
and  to  consider  the  soul  in  its  relation  to  those. 
Then  the  plan  of  these  Lectures,  as  at  the  begin- 
ning it  opened  before  us,  will  be  measurably  accom- 
plished ;  and  the  course  of  our  discussion  will  have 
come  full-circle. 

That  all  who  have  thought  of  it,  have  conceived 
of  a  future  and  permanent  existence,  in  a  highly  ad- 
vanced and  refined  state  of  being,  as  an  eminent 
good, — that  all  who  now  consider  the  possibility  of 
such  an  exalted  and  unlimited  experience,  must  agree 
in  this  estimate,  and  accept  that  as  grander  than  all 
other  good,  only  too  vast  and  high,  in  fact,  to  be 
fully  comprehended   or   worthily  celebrated  in  human 


280  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

speech, — ^is  simply  too  evident  to  admit  of  demonstra- 
tion. It  is  apparent  at  once,  to  our  judgment  and 
reason.  We  are  each  of  us  inly  persuaded  of  it. 
And  the  echo  of  this  conviction  from  the  heart  of  the 
world  comes  rolling  through  the  records  of  History,  and 
the  products  of  Literature,  from  first  to  -last.  The 
facts  upon  which  the  conviction  is  based,  and  by  which 
it  is  justified,  are  too  near  and  too  apparent  to  ad- 
mit elucidation. 

He  who  values  any  pleasure,  or  any  spiritual  pos- 
session, obtained  in  the  present  life,  must  conceive  it 
a  good  to  have  that  made  perpetual;  to  have  it  pos- 
sessed in  higher  measure,  by  more  alert  and  athletic 
powers ;  and  to  have  it  surrounded,  hke  the  opal  set 
in  a  diamond  circlet,  by  other  more  precious  enjoy- 
ments to  enhance  it.  It  is  not  possible  for  such  a  point 
to  need  proof.  One  might  as  well  argue  that  mil- 
lions of  ingots  are  more  than  pennies, — that  the 
mines  of  a  mountain  whose  fruitful  bosom  pours  forth 
at  all  veins  the  quicksilver  and  gold,  and  whose  cav- 
erns are  floored  with  starry  stones  each  fitted  to  shine 
on  the  brow  of  a  queen,  are  richer,  and  more  to  be 
prized  and  sought,  than  the  scanty  gains  which  the 
miser  hoards  in  his  stocking  or  his  box, — as  to  ar- 
gue for  this.  An  experience  expanded  over  bound- 
less Futurities,  and  full  of  incalculable  advancements 
and  delights,  as  an  object  of  desire,  as  a  vast  human 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   281 

good,  must  instantly  shadow  and  press  out  of  sight 
all  the  hurried  fruitions  we  can  snatch  in  the  Pres- 
ent. The  immediate  decision  of  the  judgment  affirms 
this.  It  takes  no  more  time  to  consider  and  com- 
pute it,  than  it  does  to  measure  the  tiny  cloud,  hurn- 
ished  by  the  sun,  and  balancing  a  moment  on  airy 
pivots  before  its  dissolution,  against  the  infinite  azure 
which  includes  it.  The  intuitive  apprehension  of  the 
Race  declares  it. 

Each  hopes  to  find  that  which  for  him  is  the 
best  thing,  eternized  in  the  Future.  The  Indian  looks 
for  a  boundless  war-path,  with  victories  ever-new 
over  animals  and  men.  The  Mohammedan  desh-es,  as 
a  good  beyond  all  Avhich  Earth  can  offer,  the  utmost 
reach  of  sensual  pleasure ;  where  wines  shall  be  quaffed 
from  diamond  cups,  and  the  beauty  of  houris  be  en- 
joyed without  stint ;  where  the  soul  shall  be  dissolved, 
yet  forever  rejuvenated,  in  the  utmost  attainable  phys- 
ical luxury.  The  philosopher  craves  a  Vision  of  Truth. 
And  the  artist  looks  for  terraces  of  beauty  and  majes- 
tical  structures ;  where  the  pillars  shall  be  worlds,  and 
the  pediments  milky-ways ;  where  colors  more  bril- 
liant, lines  more  light,  and  proportions  more  perfect, 
than  here  have  been  imagined,  shall  forever  surround 
and  instruct  the  fine  spirit. 

Each  people,  and  each  person,  according  to  the 
different  attainments  of  each,  and   theu'  several   char- 


283 

acteristics,  delights  to  anticipate  the  possession  in 
the  Future  of  that  special  good  which  to  each  is 
supreme.  And  in  nothing  is  the  progress  of  refine- 
ment and  virtue  more  evidently  shown,  than  in  the 
higher  ideas  which  are  entertained,  in  successive 
epochs  and  by  different  nations,  of  what  may  be 
thus  aspired  to  and  expected.  Men  differ  in  their 
estimate  of  the  goods  of  the  present  life.  But  when 
they  transfer  that  estimate  to  the  Future,  as  it  be- 
comes colossal  and  transcendent,  so  the  differences 
between  them,  which  are  indicated  and  gauged  by  it, 
become  most  conspicuous. 

To  us,  instructed  by  the  gradual  progress  of  a 
finer  civilization,  instructed  and  elevated  more  than 
,by  any  other  one  force  or  fact  by  the  influence  of  a 
Religion  which  comes  from  above,  and  which  the 
world  is  every  where  accepting  as  the  highest  intel- 
lectual and  moral  power  now  working  upon  mankind, 
the  goods  which  are  really  intrinsic  and  valuable, 
above  all  others,  are  those  to  which  in  the  course 
of  these  Lectures  your  attention  has  been  drawn. 
They  are  :  Knowledge,  Virtue,  the  opportunities  and 
the  powers  of  Virtuous  Operation,  and  the  spiritual 
Happiness  which  comes  from  these  possessions.  And 
the  question  for  us  is ; — Having  the  faculties  which 
inhere  in  the  Soul,  how  far  are  we  equipped,  by  Him 
who  has    created    us,   for   higher    attainments    in   the 

a 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   283 

same  grand  goods,  in  any  existence  which  may  yet 
lie  before  us? — We  have  seen  that  the  mind  is  made 
capable  of  them  here.  Is  there  reason  to  believe 
that  it  equally  is  capable  of  gaining  and  keeping  them^ 
in  more  copious  measure,  when  parted  from  the  body, 
and  made  to  inhabit  another  sphere  of  '  Being  ? — The 
question  is  a  grand  one ;  overtopping  in  fact,  in  the 
height  of  its  importance,  all  those  which  have  pre- 
ceded. 

The  probability  that  such  an  existence  is  before  ue, 
has  already  been  adverted  to  in  the  first  of  these 
Lectures.  An  instinct  of  the  Spirit  itself  affirms  it; 
and  the  most  careful  scrutiny  of  the  powers  and  apt- 
itudes involved  in  its  being,  the  most  exact  measure- 
ment of  its  faculties  and  sensibilities  against  the 
attainments   which   are   possible    in   the  Present,   con- 

4 

firms  us  in  the  presumption.  As  we  think  of  its 
high  and  unsearchable  forces,  which  disease  does  not 
waste  nor  difficulty  daunt,  which  never  are  satis- 
fied with  present  acquisition,  and  which  never  are  so 
expectant  of  a  Future  as  when  to  the  utmost  degree 
developed  by  all  the  influences  that  here  instruct  tliem, 
— we  are  impelled,  by  a  principle  of  reasoning  which 
certifies  itself  to  us  the  moment  it  meets  us,  to  pro- 
ject the  term  of  developement  and  attainment  for  this 
personal  soul  beyond  the  Present;  to  rejeci?  the  idea 
that  the   narrow  walls   of   time   final^^  limit  it^,  and 


284 


to    open    to    it   a   realm,  in   a  future   state   of  being, 
where   every   power  may  find   free   range,  and   every 
pure    and    normal    sensibility    be    answered    by    its 
.good. 

And  the  Angled  involutions  and  contradictions  of 
life,  in  human  society  as  developed  on  the  Earth ; 
where  the  wrong  often  tramples  successfully  on  the 
light;  where  the  very  noblest  life  is  often  cut  short 
as  it  approaches  the  zenith,  while  the  criminal  life 
is  prolonged  and  seems  prospered  to  a  much  remoter 
term;  where  lessons  are  taught  men,  and  afflictions 
descend  on  them,  for  the  fruit  of  whose  teachings  no 
leisure  is  given ;  where  the  germs  of  plans  are  shown, 
and  the  elements  of  processes,  that  here  have  no  ex- 
hibition or  outcome  ; — these  manifold  and  inexplicable 
entanglements  of  life,  inexplicable  if  here  is  the  end 
of  our  being,  demonstrate  to  him  who  admits  a  Prov- 
idence, watching  over  the  Present  and  still  ^  educing 
good  from  ill,'  the  existence  of  a  coming  and  more 
complete  state ;  where  seeming  contradictions  and  dis- 
crepancies shall  be  harmonized;  where  virtues  shall 
be  crowned,  and  wrongs  be  redressed,  in  an  ultimate 
result;  where  the  drama  of  History  shall  close  amid 
praises !  There  is  in  fact  no  alternative  to  this  infer- 
ence, except  in  the  doctrine  that  Providence  is  a 
fiction,  and  God  is  not  real ;  that  the  earth  grinds 
oni,  with  society  upon  it,  under  casual   but  still   com- 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   285 

pulsory  forces,  whose  rule  shows  neither  intelligence 
nor  virtue,  and  whose  highest  result  is  a  constant 
confusion. 

And  so  all  nations  have  instinctively  felt.  And 
therefore  among  all, — unless  we  must  ^cept  certain 
fragments  of  tribes,  whose  life  seems  hardly  uplifted 
from  the  level  of  brutal  existence,  and  among  whom 
barbarism  has  come  to  its  midnight, — has  been  a  deep 
sense  and  expectation  of  a  Future.  The  prophecies 
of  that  are  graven  on  the  pyramids.  Its  symbols 
confront  us,  among  the  broken  images  and  pillars  ex- 
humed from  the  grass-covered  ruins  of  Nineveh.  In 
India  and  China,  in  Japan  and  in  Borneo,  all  over 
the  vast  Archipelago  of  the  Pacific,  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  our  continent,  among  the  races 
who  here  had  their  dwelling  before  European  prows 
had  touched  it, — we  find  the  same.  And  we  know 
from  History  that  in  the  ages  which  preceded  the 
coming  of  Christ,  before  by  Him  the  gates  of  the 
Invisible  had  been  opened  to  man,  this  sense,  this  ex- 
pectation, as  constantly  prevailed.  Men  did  not  know 
for  what  to  look,  as  they  do  not  now  know  aside 
from  Revelation  for  what  to  look,  amid  the  hereafter. 
But  they  expected  such  a  hereafter.  They  looked 
for  a  mysterious  Something,  to  round  and  close  the 
histories  of  Time.  And  the  theories  of  their  philos- 
ophers, the   songs  of  their  poets,   the  intimations  that 


286 

lurk   amid  the  forms  of  their  art,  have  all  their  point 
of  union    and    resolution  in   this    common   foreshadow 
ing.     They  awaited  a  Future. 

We  must  apply  to  this  agreement  of  mankind,  then, 
the  rule  w^hich  Cicero  in  his  Tusculan  Disputations 
instructs  us  to  apply  to  their  similar  and  intimately 
related  agreement,  concerning  the  existence  and  gov- 
ernment of  God.  "  This  does  not  proceed,"  he  says, 
"from  the  conversation  of  men,  or  the  agreement  of 
philosophers.  It  is  not  an  opinion  established  by  in- 
stitutions, or  by  laws.  But,  no  doubt,  in  every  case, 
the  consent  of  all  nations  is  to  be  looked  upon  as 
A  Law  of  Nature."  It  is  an  inference,  as  clear  and 
as  immediate  from  such  spontaneous  agreement  of  the 
Race  as  if  it  were  drawn  from  the  motion  and  op- 
eration of  material  forces  in  the  system  around  us, 
that  the  principle  which  that  points  to  is  valid  and 
fixed.  And  so  we  know  that  a  Future  Existence  is 
held  in  store  for  us  ;  and  that  that  existence  shaU 
be  more  high  and  prolonged  than  the  present,  as  be- 
fits the  state  which  is  to  supplement  and  complete 
this.  The  soul  of  man,  in  all  the  centuries,  has  in- 
stinctively affirmed  this ;  and  unless  it  is  constituted 
with  an  intent  to  deceive  us,  we  must  accept  its  wit- 
ness as  true. 

So  far  as  this.  Philosophy  conducts  us.  But  at 
the  same    time,   as  I   hardly  need  remind    you,  what 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   287 

philosophy  thus  infers  and  indicates,  is  demonstrated 
and  made  evident  to  the  Christian  believer  by  the 
doctrines,  the  promises,  and  the  actual  ascension  into 
the  skies,  of  Jesus  his  Lord.  By  Him,  Immortality 
hath  been  '  brought  to  light ;'  hath  been  literally  illus- 
trated, and  made  to  shine  as  a  certainty  before  us. 
So  that  henceforth,  year  after  year,  as  the  race  be- 
comes more  refined  and  cultivated,  and  the  influence 
of  Christianity  widens  its  range,  the  conviction  of  a 
Future  shall  become  not  more  inseparably  a  part,  but 
far  more  vitally  and  effectively  a  part,  of  the  moral 
history  and  life  of  mankind.  It  is  henceforth  a  fact 
assumed  by  all  the  great  and  kindling  Teachers, — to 
deny  which  sets  a  man  in  opposition  to  the  ages,  and 
in  contrast  with  his  kind, — that  after  this  life  the  soul 
shall  continue;  not  exhaling  like  a  breath  when  the 
body  expires ;  not  pej ishing  gradually,  as  the  body  does, 
in  the  grave;  but  passing  to  other  spheres  of  exist- 
ence, and  there  retaining  its  personal  life,  and  all  its 
innate  constitutional  powers.  The  world  will  as  soon 
be  convinced  that  the  ocean  is  cut  sharply  off  by  the 
ring  of  the  horizon,  where  it  seems  to  close  down 
around  every  man's  eye,  as  it  will  be  that  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  the  Soul  is  to  terminate  at  the  grave. 

But  now  assuming  the  soul  to  exist  thus,  in  a  fu- 
ture and  more  protracted  state,  how  far  is  it  prepared 
by  its  constitutional  endowment  to  attain  Good  therein  ? 


288 


a  higher  good  than  can  be  realized  in  the  Present? 
Of  course,  the  basis  of  any  such  fitness  for  future 
acquisition  is  to  be  sought  in  the  present  constitution 
of  the  soul.  We  do  not  suppose  any  faculty  added  to 
this.  We  do  not  suppose  any  faculty  taken  from  it. 
But  regarding  it  as  it  is,  and  looking  neither  to  fancy 
nor  yet  to  Revelation  for  any  light  they  may  cast 
on  its  possible  transformations,  how  far  is  it  prepared 
with  the  faculties  it  now  holds,  to  attain  in  a  future 
state  the  same  great  results  to  which  we  have  seen 
it  to  be  competent  here  ?  Let  it  enter  that  state 
from  a  virtuous  and  happy  career  on  earth,  and  what 
may  it  look  to  realize  therein? 

In  considering  this,  several  facts  are  to  be  noticed. 

I.  The  first  is  this  :  that  the  powers  which  are 
native  to  the  soul  tend  constantly  to  larger  and  more 

PERFECT   DEVELOPEMENT,     EXCEPT    AS    3:HEY   ARE   CONSTRAINED 

BY  THE  INFIRMITIES  OF  THE  BoDY. — Asidc  from  thosc  in- 
terruptions and  restraints,  they  reach  upward  ever- 
more to  new  fulness  of  growth,  and  are  never  satis- 
fied with  any  actual  attainment.  They  thus  point 
forward  to  a  future  experience,  and  are  innately  and 
evidently  adapted  to  attain  therein,  in  a  higher  degree, 
their  appropriate  goods. 

Take  the  Judgment,  for  example,  and  analyse  its 
motions,  and  you  see  this  to  be  true.  This  is,  as 
I    have    said,    the    analytic,    constructive,    and    scien- 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   289 

tific  power,  by  which  ^arguments  are  framed  and  theo- 
ries elaborated,  by  which  facts  are  resolved  into  the 
principles  that  pervade  them,  and  these  principles  are 
compacted  in  a  logical  order.  Our  knowledge  comes 
largely  from  the  use  of  this  power.  It  is  also  the 
source  of  a  certain  enjoyment,  to  every  soul  wherein 
it  freely  and  healthfully  works.  And  this  tends  con- 
stantly, with  constitutional  aptness,  toward  a  larger 
developement.  It  is  never  to  be  satisfied  with  any 
acquisition  or  any  result  which  already  is  realized,  but 
moves  toward  one  higher,  more  perfect  and  all-in- 
cluding. It  says,  as  the  Christian  apostle  exclaimed 
— when  he  could  scarcely  have  been  less  than  sixty 
years  of  age,  and  when  the  richness  of  his  knowl- 
edge, not  less  than  the  vigor  and  the  fervor  of  his 
powers,  seems  to  us  to  have  been  complete, — ^Not  as 
though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect ;  but  /  folloiv  after,  if  that  I  may  apprehend 
that  for  which  also  I  am  apprehended.'  His  ideas 
had  not  ceased  to  surpass  and  contrast  his  grandest 
attainment;  and  he  felt  himself  even  then  but  a,  be- 
ginner in  his  course. 

The  same  is  profoundly  true  of  every  scientific 
man ;  is  true  the  more  profoundly  as  his  researches 
are  more  wide,  careful,  and  successful.  Newton  said  of 
himself,  you  know,  in  words  whose  majestic  and  beau- 
tiful humility  has  made  them  familiar,  and  has  made 

19 


290 

him  beloved  as  well  as  revered,  around  the  "World  : 
'  I  know  not  what  I  may  appear  to  the  world ;  but 
to  myself  I  seem  to  have  been  only  like  a  boy  play- 
ing on  the  sea-shore,  and  diverting  myself  in  now  and 
then  finding  a  smoother  pebble  or  a  prettier  shell 
than  ordinary,  whilst  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lay  all 
undiscovered  before  me/  And  yet  these  ^smoother 
pebbles'  which  he  had  found,  were  the  laws  of  gravi- 
tation which  hold  the  stars  on  their  serene  courses, 
standing  as  pillars  of  adamant  underneath  them;  these 
'prettier  shells'  were  the  method  of  Fluxions  and  the 
Binomial  Theorem,  a  theory  of  colors  established  upon 
thousands  of  costly  experiments,  and  laws  of  Light 
so  subtle  and  beautiful  that  their  imprint  upon  science 
seemed  to  give  it  a  new  and  celestial  illumination. 

When  William  Herschel,  dissatisfied  with  the  mu- 
sical profession  to  which  he  had  been  bred,  deter- 
mined to  devote  himself  to  the  study  of  the  stars, 
and  to  the  minute  investigation  of  their  motions  and 
laws,  he  found  no  telescope  that  could  answer  the  de- 
mands of  his  inquisitive  and  searching  mind.  He 
therefore  determined  to  construct  one  for  himself.; 
and  after  what  seemed  to  others  marvellous  labors,  he 
completed  a  reflector  of  five  feet  in  length.  But  this 
was  not  sufficient;  and  speedily  transcending  it  he 
turned  from  the  heavens,  and  commenced  the  con- 
Btruction   of   another  more   adequate  to   his    enlarged 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   291 

wants,  not  ceasing  from  the  effort  till  it  was  rewarded 
by  the  completion  of  an  instrument  seven  feet  in 
length,  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  ^  optic  glass'  at 
that  time  possessed  by  any  similar  observer.  But  still 
this  could  not  give  him  all  the  answers  which  he  sought 
to  his  nightly  inquiries ;  so  that  the  labors  which  had 
been  for  a  little  suspended  were  again  resumed  to 
construct  another,  now  of  ten  feet;  and  yet  a  little 
while  later,  another  still,  of  twenty  feet  in  focal  length. 
And  it  was  not  till  at  last  he  had  planned  and  built 
that  magnificent  instrument  erected  at  Slough,  with 
its  tube  of  forty  feet  in  length,  slung  up  amid  pil- 
lars, braces,  and  beams,  like  a  very  mortar  of  observ- 
ations bombarding  the  skies, — with  its  speculum  of 
almost  fifty  inches  in  superficial  diameter,  and  with 
its  magnifying  power  of  6,500 — that  he  was  meas- 
urably satisfied  with  his  apparatus  for  study. 

And  even  then,  it  is  on  record  that  this  equipment 
did  not  fully  meet  his  desires;  and  that  nothing  but 
what  seemed  the  insuperable  difficulties  of  the  work 
at  his  age,  prevented  the  erection  of  a  still  more  stu- 
pendous instrument,  before  which  the  new  nebulae  which 
he  had  discovered  should  be  resolved  into  suns,  or  be 
shown  the  misty  seed-plot  of  worlds,  and  by  whose 
continued  micrometrical  measurements  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  *  fixed  stars  the  elements  of  the  paral- 
lax should  at  last  be  ascertained. 


292 

So  always  the  scientific  judgment  in  man  is  in- 
stinctively running  forward,  to  new  attainments,  and 
a  more  complete  mastery.  It  treats  all  instruments, 
the  most  elaborate  and  complete,  as  the  traveller  up 
the  mountain  treats  the  staff  which  he  has  cut  in 
a  hedge  by  the  way-side;  only  using  it  as  a  helper, 
and  throwing  it  away  when  the  end  has  been  gained, 
or  retaining  it  as  a  memento  of  the  course  it  has 
assisted.  It  will  never  pause  satisfied,  this  faculty 
of  the  Judgment,  with  any  result  accessible  in  Time ; 
but  conscious  of  capacities  unexhausted  by  use,  and 
superior  to  any  defined  acquirement,  it  will  press  still 
upward  till  the  universe  shall  be  scrutinized,  and  then 
only  will  rest  when  clearly  and  fully  it  has  repro- 
duced by  its  analysis  the  thought  of  the  Almighty. 

It  is  very  instructive  and  impressive  to  observe, 
too,  how  age,  in  the  absence  of  physical  disease  and  of 
prostrating  pain,  does  not  oppose  or  retard  this  spon- 
taneous movement.  The  principle  of  Curiosity,  as  an 
intellectual  principle,  the  desire  for  true  and  satisfy- 
ing knowledge, — and  the  power  of  the  judgment  to 
satisfy  this  desire,  exploring  and  explaining  what  at- 
tracts its  attention, — both  grow  as  they  are  used, 
while  that  use  is  legitimate  and  fulfils  God's  plan ; 
and  they  are  never  so  strong,  unless  sickness  ex- 
hausts and  shatters  the  frame,  as  when  the  studies 
already  prosecuted  have  been  largest    and   most  pro- 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    293 

found.  To  the  end  of  his  life,  the  student  whose 
frame  remains  unshaken,  writes  on  morals  and  history, 
on  science  and  on  fine  art,  and  his  inquiries  in  all 
the  departments  of  nature  are  marked  by  as  keen 
and  strenuous  an  enthusiasm  as  when  in  his  youth 
he  traversed  the  hills  and  the  valleys  on  foot.  Each 
process  becomes  but  a  basis  for  higher  ones  ;  and  each 
successful  and  wide  research  but  opens  the  path  to 
new  discoveries.  As  the  skiff,  which  the  boy  builds, 
grows  at  last  to  the  steamship,  and  the  hut  of  the 
pioneer  to  the  palace  which  the  citizen  rears  and 
adorns, — ^while  yet  neither  of  these  is  felt  to  be  final 
with  him,  or  adequate  to  the  highest  conception  he 
can  form, — so  the  thought  of  the  child  expands  and 
accumulates  to  the  science  of  manhood,  and  still  is 
admitted  insufficient  and   transient. 

In  this  then  we  see,  unmistakeably  declared,  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  Soul  for  still  higher  attainments,  through 
the  use  of  its  constructive  and  analytic  power  ex- 
amining Truth,  when  it  passes  from  the  present  to  a 
future  state  of  being.  The  fact  that  it  goes  on  still 
triumphing  and  enlarging  as  long  as  it  here  is  prop- 
erly used, — unexhausted  by  its  endeavors,  yet  still  un- 
satisfied with  any  result,  so  far  as  we  can  follow  or 
trace  it, — seems  the  promise  and  the  prophecy,  if  not 
the  proof  of  the  fact,  that  if  its  existence  outlasts 
that  of  the  body,  a  yet  higher  mission,   on   a    more 


294  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

noble  sphere,  may  be  hereafter  given  it  to  accomplish. 
Having  looked  at  the  stars  from  beneath  and  from  afar, 
it  may  with  superior  and  immediate  vision  look  upon 
them  from  above,  when  treading  on  the  pavement 
whose  dust  they  are.  Having  caught  the  Light,  and 
untwisted  its  strand,  and  interpreted  its  sweet  influ- 
ence, as  it  flies  from  the  sun,  it  may  hereafter  survey 
this  more  largely,  and  see  it  in  more  of  its  secret  re- 
lations, when  dwelling  in  realms  where  the  element  is 
perpetual,  and  hearing  with  finer,  more  spiritual  sense, 
the  rushing  of  its  melodies  as  it  flies  through  the 
ether ! 

And  what  is  thus  evidently  true  of  the  Judgment, 
is  equally  true  of  the  Taste,  the  Imagination;  is  as 
really  if  not  as  apparently  true  of  the  reflective 
power,  and  the  Memory.  Disease  may  retard  the  ex- 
pression and  the  use  of  each  mental  faculty.  But  ex- 
cept as  disease  or  violence  invades  these — ^invades, 
rather,  the  temporary  physical  mechanism  which  now 
mediates  between  them  and  the  world  which  is  with- 
out,— they  become  continually  more  vigorous  with  use, 
and  aspire  to  a  more  comprehensive  developement. 
Their  innate  tendency  is  to  ascend,  above  all  attained 
or  assignable  limits ;  to  gain  a  perfection,  the  antici- 
pation of  which  gives  loftiness  to  thought,  and  majesty 
to  song,  but  to  which  the  records  of  past  acquisition 
aflbrd   no   parallel.      The    embryo  wing  of  the  eaglet 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    295 

in  the  egg  no  more  certainly  points  to  the  consum- 
mate pinion  that  afterward  shall  sweep  with  an  un- 
wearied flight  over  continents  and  seas,  than  do  these 
nascent  and  germinating  powers  to  realms  and  works 
as  yet  unattained. 

And  the  same  is  as  true  of  the  Will,  and  the 
Affections,  which  make  us  capable  of  Virtue  and  its 
action.  The  same  is  as  true  of  every  sensibility 
which  becomes  in  its  right  use  an  inlet  of  pleasure. 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  Human  Soul,  a  fruit  of  its 
spirituality  of  being,  a  mark  and  note  of  its  Divine 
origin,  that  all  its  powers  grow  ampler,  stronger,  and 
more  comprehensive,  as  disciplined  by  use.  They  gain 
variety,  vigor,  proportion,  according  as  they  are  exer- 
cised with  a  more  faithful  energy ;  the  feeble  and 
stammering  speech  of  infancy  becoming  eloquence  that 
commands,  becoming  song  that  inspires ;  the  pen-and- 
ink  sketch  by  the  child  in  the  cradle,  or  the  paint- 
ings of  birds  made  with  a  pencil  clipped  from  the 
cat's  fur,  giving  place  in  the  end  to  the  majestic  de- 
lineation of  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,  or  of  Christ 
the  Redeemer  healing  the  Sick;  and  all  the  efforts 
and  successes  of  life,  until  its  meridian,  being  chiefly 
important  as  conducting  to  the  processes,  and  furnish- 
ing the  means  for  them,  which  shall  more  enrich 
our  later  years. 

No  natural  limit  is  discoverable  by  us  to  this  men- 


296  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

tal  progress.  It  is  not  till  the  body,  like  every  ma- 
terial structure  which  we  see,  becomes  tremulous  and 
incapable  with  the  progress  of  Time,  that  the  light 
within  even  seems  to  be  darkened.  And  then  we  do 
not  feel  that  this  seeming  is  real.  The  alabaster  vase 
is  clouded  over.  The  spiritual  flame,  with  its  odor- 
ous clearness,  we  are  impelled  to  beheve  burns  on  per- 
petual.— Is  there  not  then,  herein,  if  I  may  not  say 
the  demonstration,  certainly  the  clearest  indication 
and  foreshadowing  of  the  fact,  that  this  Soul  whose 
powers  are  so  ascendant  and  unexhausted,  which  is 
seeking  continually  new  implements  and  suggestions, 
which  is  not  satisfied  with  the  knowledge  it  has 
gained,  or  the  love  it  has  attracted,  or  the  works  it 
has  accomplished,  but  which  ever  longs  for  higher 
attainments  and  more  eminent  activities — will  have 
capacity  and  fitness  hereafter,  if  opportunity  is  given 
it,  for  a  developement  more  noble,  and  a  progress  sub- 
limer!  I  see  not  how  we  can  avoid  the  conclusion. 
The  plan  of  our  faculties  does  evidently  take  in  a 
realm  after  the  present.  It  contemplates  a  Future  ; 
and  is  prophetical  of  that.  And  if  we  have  here  been 
virtuous  and  wise,  we  are  adequately  prepared,  in  the 
frame  of  our  being,  to  realize  there  a  more  mighty 
advancement. 

Another  feature,  too,  in  the  Soul's  constitution  may 
shed  further  light   on   the   same   inquiry :  How  far  it 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    297 

is  fitted,  in  its  natural  constitution,  for  advancement 
in  the  Future  ? 

II.  This  is :  that  not  only  does  it  constantly  tend  to 
a  larger  and  more  perfect  developement  of  its  powers, 
but  it  tends  specifically,   with   an  immediate  impulse, 

TO  SURPASS  ITS  CIRCUMSTANCES,  TO  MATCH  ITS  COMPANIONS, 
AND  TO  MAKE  THEM  CONTRIBUTE  TO  ITS  HIGHER  ADVANCE- 
MENT.— It  does  this  in  this  life,  to  the  end  of  its 
history.  If  it  does  it  in  another  life,  future  to  this, 
as  it  natively  is  fitted  to,  then  it  shows  the  foun- 
dation deeply  laid  in  its  constitution  for  vast  progress 
therein. 

This  is  intimately  connected,  of  course,  with  the 
fact  we  have  just  noticed.  It  springs  from  the  same 
root,  in  the  vital  and  vigorous  constitution  of  the 
Soul.  Yet  in  some  respects  it  is  different  from  the 
other;  and  as  connected  with  the  theme  immediately 
before  us,  it  demands  and  deserves  a  particular  dis- 
cussion.— Whatever  mans  position  and  circumstances 
may  be,  in  the  present  sphere  of  being,  as  long  as  he 
is  virtuous  and  studious  of  self-culture  he  shows  him- 
self above  them,  in  the  plenitude  and  dignity  of  his 
native  force.  However  much  the  Race  may  advance, 
in  all  the  apparatus  of  instruction  and  refinement, 
it  still  does  not  reach  the  requirements  of  the  soul, 
and  its  last  gains  are  no  more  an  ultimate  with  this 
than    was    the    first    and    rudest    beginning.      Who- 


298  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

ever  mans  companions  and  teachers  may  be — how  far 
soever  removed  from  himself,  in  the  affluence  of  their 
knowledge,  and  the  elevation  of  their  power — ^he 
seeks  instinctively  to  equal  their  stature,  and  to  par- 
allel their  course ;  and  if  he  cannot  repeat  their  ex- 
periences, he  is  able  to  realize,  through  his  relations 
to  them,  a  far  higher  good  than  would  otherwise 
have  been  possible.  The  light  which  this  fact  casts 
on  the  capacity  of  the  soul  for  advancement  in  the 
Future,  will  at  once  be  evident  to  all  who  are  thought- 
ful. That  it  is  a  fact,  we  shall  need  no  lengthened 
argument  to  persuade  us. 

It  is  by  reason  of  this  fact  that  the  disciples  of 
any  Master,  in  ethics  or  in  art,  or  in  any  form  of 
science,  though  perhaps  inferior  to  him  in  constitu- 
tional faculty,  though  confessedly  inferior  in  attain- 
ment and  culture,  come  rapidly  to  be  like  him ;  and, 
appropriating  the  lessons  of  his  thought  and  expe- 
rience, to  minister  to  others  as  he  has  first  ministered 
to  their  ardent  souls.  The  youthful  minds  that  muse 
and  hearken  beneath  the  groves  of  the  Academy,  are 
mating  themselves  with  the  great  and  princely  spirit 
of  the  philosopher;  are  becoming  re-enforced  with  its 
animating  energy,  and  inwardly  illumined  with  its  vis- 
ions of  Truth.  And  though  they  may  not  rival  it,  in 
endowment  or  acquirement,  in  any  of  those  illustrious 
qualities  which  give  it  its  command,  they  partake    of 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   299 

its  treasures,  they  become  sympathetically  affiliated 
with  it,  and  are  prepared  to  bear  the  fair  report  of 
it  abroad,  and  to  be  in  after  time  the  witnesses  to  the 
world  of  its  sublime  beauty.  Some  one  of  them, 
even,  catching  up  its  ideas,  and  imbibing  its  force, 
may  set  those  ideas  in  new  relations,  or  replace 
them  by  others,  and  so  become  the  author  of  a  sys- 
tem contrasting  that  by  which  he  was  disciplined, 
and  exerting  as  wide  an  influence  upon  men. 

It  is  thus  that  every  great  man,  who  is  also  a 
good  man,  sends  forth  upon  his  times,  through  his 
simple  daily  living,  a  beneficent  influence.  It  rays 
from  him  constantly ;  sometimes  with  no  more  con- 
sciousness on  his  part  than  the  sun  shows  of  the 
light  which  it  incessantly  distributes.  Men  are  try- 
ing continually  to  emulate  his  qualities ;  according  to 
a  law  inherent  in  their  nature.  And  thus,  by  the 
silent  attractions  of  his  example,  he  is  drawing  them 
toward  higher  and  more  admirable  attainments.  Per- 
ugino  trains  Raphael  to  be  a  far  greater  master  than 
himself.  Erasmus  and  More,  in  their  friendly  con- 
verse, invigorate  one  another.  And  one  great  hero- 
ical  or  poetical  soul,  in  any. era,  diffuses  an  influence 
of  grandeur  or  of  softness  over  multitudes  of  lesser 
contemporary  minds. — For  the  law  of  the  Soul  is,  to 
emulate  its  leaders  ;  and  to  seek  to  gain  resemblance, 
and   even  equality,  with  the  noblest  whom  it  meets. 


300  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

Herein   then  is   laid,  in    the   nature    of   this    Soul, 
the   firm  foundation  for   great  possible   advancements, 
for  a  vast  exaltation,  in  a  future  state  of  being.     If  we 
suppose,  with  ancient  sages,  that  in  the  realms  which 
the  spirit  shall  inhabit  when  ascending  from  a  career 
of  virtuous  action,  there  shall  be  assembled  all  the  wise, 
the   virtuous,   the   magnanimous   of   earth,    that   their 
converse  shall  be  on  those  themes  of  thought  which  now 
to  us  are   so    transcendant,   and    that    their  faculties 
shall  all  attain  new  dignity  with  this  change  in   their 
position ;  or  if  we  accept  the  descriptions  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  believe  that  in   the  Future  they  who  here 
have  used  their  faculties   earnestly,  in  the   service  of 
true  virtue,  shall  be  assembled  not  only  with  lawgiv- 
ers   and   prophets,    and    with    eminent    apostles,   but 
with   all   who    from    the    beginning    of    history   have 
wrought  righteousness  on  earth,  and  even  with  beings 
of  other  orders  and  higher  ranks  than  yet  are  known 
to  us,  with   the   unfallen  Seraphim,  with  the  Virtues, 
Thrones  and  Princedoms  of  Milton ;  if  we  believe  that 
there  the  Creator  himself  shall  be  manifested  to  them 
in  personal  presence,  that  His  glory  shall  ever  irradi- 
ate their  vision,  and  that  they  shall  receive,  by  direct 
communication,   of    His    knowledge    and    thought; — in 
either  case  we  must  see,  in  this  tendency  of  the  soul 
to  match  itself  with  its  companions,  and  to  equal  their 
thought,  the  preparation  for  immense  and    immeasura- 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   301 

ble  advancements,  when  it  passes  to  that  superior 
state !  This  tendency,  or  rather  this  property  of  the 
mind,  which  essentially  characterizes  it,  and  demon- 
strates its  plastic  spiritual  force,  seems  especially  de- 
signed to  prepare  it  for  the  Future.  And  till  that 
Future  is  opened  to  us,  looking  simply  along  the  line 
of  this  tendency,  '  it  doth  not  appear  what  we  may 
there  become ! 

I  see  the  child,  continually  mating  its  mind  with 
the  parent's,  or  with  those  of  older  children,  and  re- 
ceiving from  this  more  instruction  and  culture  than 
from  all  special  studies ;  I  see  the  true  man,  pressing 
into  the  society  of  others  more  eminent,  as  that  is 
gradually  opened  to  him,  and  prompted  thereby,  and 
indeed  directly  aided,  to  a  grander  attainment  than 
would  otherwise  have  been  possible ;  his  spirit  quick- 
ened, his  views  enlarged,  and  his  power  to  move 
others  greatly  increased ;  I  see  that  this  tendency  is 
innate  and  incessant  in  all  who  use  their  powers 
aright,  that  it  goes  on  till  death,  and  only  then 
passes  from  the  range  of  our  notice ; — and  then  I 
know  that  in  this  aspiring  assimilative  constitution, 
which  God  has  given  us.  He  has  made  a  provision  for 
our  nobler  Hereafter!  so  that  however  strange  and 
eminent  the  companionship  may  be  to  which  we  are 
there  summoned,  we  shall  still  instinctively  seek 
equality  with  it,  and  be  never  repelled  by  all  its  sub- 


302  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

limity.  Aside  from  the  general  tendency  of  our  pow- 
ers to  elevation  and  increase,  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
in  this  particular  aptitude  and  impulse  we  have  the 
fruitful  germ  of  an  ascent,  in  knowledge,  experience, 
and  every  power,  that  may  fill  the  whole  Future  with 
its  serene  glory. 

I  have  referred,  too,  to  the  relation  which  the  soul 
always  holds,  which  b}^  its  native  constitution  it  must 
hold,  to  the  Circumstances  that  surround  it  :  for  this 
has  importance  in  connection  with  our  theme. — Over 
all  such  circumstances  the  mind  is  supreme.  There 
are  none  so  humble  that  within  them  its  powers  may 
not  vigorously  act.  There  are  none  so  august  that 
the  soul  is  surpassed  or  is  satisfied  by  them ;  is  oth- 
erwise than  stimulated  to  yet  higher  exertion. 

The  swearing  tinker' s-boy  of  Bedford,  the  vagrant 
and  dissolute  parUamentary  soldier,  reformed  of  his 
vices  but  confined  in  a  dungeon,  makes  that  a  very 
throne  of  his  royal  imagination,  and  sends  from  it 
the  embassadors  of  his  thought  to  roam  through  every 
land  and  language,  and  turn  the  eyes  of  multitudes  to 
the  skies.  The  ardent  political  leader,  immured  in  the 
fortress,  and  shut  out  from  human  companionship  and 
aid,  becomes  the  master  there  of  the  ancient  and  dif- 
ficult English  tongue,  and  is  fitted  for  a  march 
of  triumphal  eloquence.  The  son  of  the  Athenian 
midwife,  unhappy  at  home,  applies    to   social  and   re- 


** 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   303 

ligious  discussion  his  practical,  robust,  and  penetrating 
mind,  and  is  thus  made  the  suggestor  of  the  highest 
philosophy,  around  whom  gather  the  eminent  minds  that 
give  renown  to  Grecian  Literature. — ^Almost  any  cir- 
cumstances may  be  made  propitious  to  itself  by  the 
soul;  and  as  long  as  it  is  virtuous,  and  healthfully 
active,  it  can  use  any  such  for  its  fui-therance  and  up- 
building. 

There  are  none  too  low  for  it.  There  are  none, 
either,  too  high  and  splendid  to  assist  it.  For  ever, 
as  its  outward  appliances  increase,  the  spiritual  power 
keeps  continually  before  them,  and  asserts  its  innate 
supremacy  over  them.  No  change  of  civilization  can 
surpass  and  outrun  it.  No  grandest  apparatus  that 
can  ever  be  acquired,  can  be  more  than  subordinate  and 
tributary  to  it.  And  in  this  fact  is  the  sign  of  its 
indefinite  capacity;  the  mark  of  its  fitness  for  great 
progress  in  the  Future; — supposing  that  state  to  be 
opened  to  it,  and  supposing  it  prepared,  through  a 
virtuous   career,  normally  to  enter  that. 

Conceive  well  the  diiferences  between  the  first  sav- 
age period  in  the  history  of  Greece,  or  that  pastoral 
period  which  early  succeeded  this  on  the  beautiful 
peninsula,  and  that  splendid  age  when  Athens  was 
crowned  with  its  diadem  of  temples,  when  the  val- 
leys  Avere  lighted  with  the  exquisite  beauty  of  stat- 
ues and  of  shrines,  when   the    Doric,  the   Ionic    and 


304 

the  Corinthian  orders,  sustained  on  their  coincident 
shafts  the  trophies  of  ages  ;  and  when  Sculpture, 
Painting,  with  a  Poetry  that  seemed  caught  from 
the  winds  and  the  seas,  and  to  echo  their  ethereal 
music,  had  combined  to  put  the  golden  robe  on  the 
ivory  statue  of  Athenian  society ; — conceive  the  dif- 
ferences that  had  there  been  realized  !  And  yet  the 
latter  circumstances  were  no  more  ultimate  to  the 
Soul  which  had  created  them,  and  which  still  em- 
ployed  them,  than  the  former  had  been. 

So  far  as  the  intellectual  faculty  was  concerned,  it 
might  have  gone  forward  from  that  eminent  point  to 
one  far  beyond  it;  and  from  that  to  a  higher  one, 
in  a  still  aspiring  and  culminating  series.  Athenian 
society  decayed  at  last,  not  at  all  because  its  art- 
ists had  reached  the  limit  of  human  invention,  or 
its  philosophers  the  necessary  term  of  human  thought, 
but  because  the  moral  faculties  and  tastes  which 
should  have  presided  in  that  society  were  not  de- 
veloped in  proportion  to  the  aesthetic  and  intellect- 
ual poAvers  which  added  to  it  ornament.  It  was 
outwardly  like  the  statue  of  Minerva  in  the  Parthenon, 
o1r  costly  ivory,  overlaid  with  gold ;  but  it  was  wood 
within ;  and  the  wood  rotted :  that  is  all  that  can  be 
said  of  it.  Then  the  cunning  of  the  ivory,  and  the 
splendor  of  the  gold,  fell  and  were  broken,  and  the 
nations   gathered   the   shining  fragments. — Except   for 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    305 

this  ethical  depravation  which  consumed  it,  the  spirit 
that  wrought  in  the  Grecian  civilization  might  have 
taken  its  highest  Periclean  successes,  and  have  made 
them  but  the  step-stones  to  superior  attainments ; 
the  subordinate  ornaments  of  more  imperial  achieve- 
ments. 

And  so  among  us.  Consider  the  differences,  in  the 
outward  apparatus  and  equipment  of  society,  between 
that  age  and  the  present !  We  are  heirs  to  the  leg- 
acies of  many  successive  intervening  generations. 
While  the  ancient  laws  of  proportion  and  color  are  as 
fresh  to  us  as  to  those  for  whom  Phidias  and  Praxi- 
teles wrought,  we  are  ministered  to  by  other  minds 
than  which  theirs  were  not  grander.  Michael  Angelo 
is  not  dead  for  us,  with  his  sublime  religious  spirit; 
but  still  he  speaks  to  us  from  St.  Peter's  and  the 
Vatican,  tiaraed  with  the  arts,  a  more  than  Pope,  and 
bearing  to  us  a  better  evangel.  Raphael,  Rubens, 
Leonardo,  Rembrandt, — how  many  have  painted  for 
us  !  How  many  have  philosophized  !  How  many  have 
sung,  in  sweetest  strains,  those  themes  to  which  prose 
hath  no  faculty  to  ascend !  How  many  have  gone  ^ 
abroad  upon  the  earth,  have  builded  up  empires,  dis- 
covered continents,  framed  systems  of  legislation,  elab- 
orated material  instruments  and  mechanisms,  made 
nature  and  thought  all  tributary  to  us  !  Shakspeare 
is  ours ;   Lope ;    Goethe ;   the  French  and  English  pul- 

20 


306 

pits ;  the  German  Universities.  The  Civil  Law  has 
disciplined  Europe ;  the  Gothic  architecture  has  blos- 
somed into  being,  and  filled  the  air  with  its  magnifi- 
cent beauty ;  great  Institutes  have  been  builded ;  new 
methods  of  statesmanship  have  supplanted  the  older ; 
International  Congresses,  suspending  wars,  have  become 
first  a  dream,  then  a  plan,  and  now  already  a  prophetic 
fact  casting  light  along  the  Future ; — all,  since  the 
Grecian  developement  became  historical.  What  to  those 
who  sought  for  novelties  at  Athens  were  only  repel- 
lant  and  impenetrable  forests,  haunted  by  the  gods  of 
the  thunder  and  the  wind,  are  now  the  serene  and 
broad  domains  of  prosperous  kingdoms.  The  sea 
which  they  dreaded  is  just  one  inlet  of  the  oceans 
which  we  explore.  And  where  they  thought  the  earth 
was  ended,  we  find  that  it  begins ;  and  that  other 
continents,  unknown  to  the  old  world,  are  established 
amid  the  waves  to  hold  the  orb  in  its  steady  equi- 
poise. 

And  still  the  march  of  invention  and  progress  is 
swiftly  forward.  All  art  has  now  become  winged  and 
executive.  It  plunges  into  the  earth,  to  pluck  up  from 
its  bosom  the  ornaments  and  the  furniture  of  our 
household  life.  It  treads  seas  underneath  it,  and 
tramples  the  forests,  and  even  the  rock-ribbed  moun- 
tains, in  its  path,  as  the  very  chaff  of  the  summer 
threshing-floor.     It  penetrates  the  skies,  pervades   the 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    307 

air,  makes  continents  kindred,  and  startles  with  the 
thrill  of  its  outrunning  messages,  anticipating  light, 
the  most  distant  populations.  It  is  on  every  hand, 
this  modern  inventive  and  industrial  art,  a  leveler  and 
an  up-builder,  more  powerful  than  parliaments,  tri- 
umphant over  kings.  And  powers  are  now  in  daily 
use,  driving  looms,  carrying  letters,  performing  the 
most  ordinary  offices  of  life,  in  comparison  with 
which  the  enginery  of  Vulcan  was  not  so  vast, 
while  the  footsteps  of  Hebe  were  not  more  light. 
Consider  the  printing-press,  the  compass,  the  telescope, 
the  steam-engine,  the  telegraph,  the  air-ship  that  may 
yet  be — and  you  see  to  what  an  eminence,  in  all 
the  equipment  and  the  circumstances  of  life,  the  Ages 
have  brought  us  ! 

And  yet  the  personal  Soul  in  man  is  superior  to 
these  circumstances.  It  adapts  itself  to  them.  It 
adapts  them  to  it;  and  is  constantly  striving  to  bring 
them  more  nearly  to  that  standard  of  requirement 
which  it  finds  in  itself,  and  which  ever  advances  as 
they  are  accumulated.  The  progress  of  civiHzation  is 
wrought  in  this  way;  the  soul  generating  the  instru- 
ments and  the  appliances  which  it  needs,  and  then  rising 
above  them,  and  seeking  to  supplant  them  by  others 
more  adequate.  And  it  is  not  possible,  with  our  most 
prescient  and  comprehensive  thought,  to  discern  .any 
necessary  limit   to  these   advances. — Herein  then   we 


308  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

see  the  capacity  of  this  soul,  if  here  rightly  disci- 
plined, cultivated  and  used,  when  it  enters  that  Fu- 
ture which  is  certainly  before  it,  to  realize  in  that 
sphere  a  still  nobler  good  !  Whatever  may  there  sur- 
round and  meet  it,  the  promise  is  shown  in  its  his- 
tory on  earth  that  if  entering  with  virtuous  aims  the 
new  scenes,  and  sustaining  to  them  a  normal  relation, 
it  shall  still  be  superior  to  all  those  circumstances ; 
and  instead  of  being  crushed,  or  dazzled  and  con- 
founded, by  that  celestial  environment,  it  shall  be 
helped  and  advanced  by  it  to  a  far  nobler  progress  ! 

The  poet  desires,  and  the  Christian  anticipates,  a 
scenery  in  the  Future  state  so  transcending  the  pres- 
ent that  our  poor  terms,  which  are  copies  of  nature, 
cannot  fitly  set  it  forth ;  that  we  must  take  the  very 
opposites  of  the  Earth,  and  pile  them  together,  in  or- 
der to  approach  it !  There  day  without  night,  shall 
surround  us  with  its  splendors.  There  the  very  foun- 
dations and  the  battlements  of  the  city  shall  be  '  all 
manner  of  precious  stones,'  built  up  in  belted  layers 
of  beauty ;  a  sea  of  glass,  which  shall  be  '  no  more 
sea,'  shall  be  the  platform  of  the  angelic  worship ;  the 
tree  of  life  shall  bear  its  wondrous  fruit  every  month; 
and  vivid  and  swift  as  the  passage  of  the  lightning 
shall  be  the  forms  and  the  orderly  movement  of  those 
serene  spirits  who  go  on  errands  of  mercy  and  of 
peace  throughout  the  creation !     We   cannot  tell  what 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   309 

shall  be  there.  And  sometimes,  as  we  think  of  it,  it 
is  to  us  like  the  vision  of  old  to  hiTn  who  saw  it, 
*so  high  that  it  is  dreadful!' 

And  yet  we  are  assured,  by  what  now  passes  be- 
fore our  eyes,  that  the  Soul  so  circumstanced,  un- 
less the  presages  of  its  history  deceive  us,  shall  be 
still  supreme  in  the  midst  of  these  circumstances ; 
that  with  powers  of  motion  in  comparison  of  which 
the  sunlight  is  not  swifter,  with  powers  of  vision  that 
shall  leave  no  horizon  within  the  ring  of  the  uni- 
verse, it  shall  still  use  them  all  as  subordinate  aux- 
iliaries to  its  progress  and  its  work ! — Who  then  shall 
measure  the  attainments  to  be  there  made,  and  con-* 
stantly  to  be  carried  forward  to  completion,  through- 
out Immortality?  Has  not  God  prepared  us  for  just 
such  attainments  ?  May  we  not  surely  realize  them, 
if  only  here  we  use  as  He  would  have  us  the 
powers  He  has  given  us,  and  enter  as  His  children 
the  realms  yet  invisible  ?  My  Friends,  this  is  so. 
We  see  in  this  constitution  of  the  soul  the  promise  of 
the  future  advances  of  Society,  as  existing  on  Earth ;  of 
its  more  entire  mastery  over  matter;  of  its  more  su- 
preme domination  over  thought;  till  perfected  inven- 
tion shall  make  nature  all  active  in  the  service  of 
man ;  till  the  choicest  productions  of  genius  and  in- 
dustry shall  be  common,  I  had  almost  said  as  the 
water  and  the  air,  to  the  puiified  Race;  till  the  long 


310  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

and  troubled  preparatory  centuries  shall  have  all  been 
consummated  in  the  luminous  fulfilment  of  a  last 
Golden  Age !  But  we  see  more  than  this !  Even 
the  fitness  of  the  Soul  for  a  progress,  before  which 
all  that  Earth  can  hold  is  dim  and  poor,  in  those  great 
ages  when  Death  shall  have  loosed  before  its  march 
the  bars  of  Time ! 

III.  It  would  be  interesting  and  useful  to  dwell  on 
a  third  point  here,  which  also  is  intimately  connected 
with  this  theme.  It  is,  that  not  only  has  the  Soul 
this  constant  tendency  to  developement  and  progress, 
and  this  native  supremacy  over  all  outward  circum- 
stances,   but   it    has    the    intuition  of   certain   Ideas, 

WHICH  IT  CANNOT  COMPREHEND  AND  MEASURE  IN  THE  PRESENT 
WORLD,   WHICH   IT     INSTINCTIVELY   LOOKS    TO    INVESTIGATE    IN 

THE  Future  ;  and  in  the  mastery  of  which  must  be  high- 
est ENJOYMENT. 

Thus  again  we  are  capacitated  for  a  future  expe- 
rience, and  our  nature  is  made  prophetical  of  such. 
The  idea  of  God,  an  infinite  Being ;  of  Eternity,  an 
infinite  ever-new  existence ;  of  a  government  immacu- 
late, and  extending  through  Eternity ;  these,  and  the 
like,  are  native  with  us.  Because  music  utters  a  hint 
of  them  sometimes,  it  shakes  the  soul  with  unsearch- 
able power.  It  seems  to  brood  over  us,  a  mystic 
^  tone-speech,'  throbbing  with  the  pressure  of  unutter- 
able   truths.      Because    some    minds  feel  these   more 


CONSTITUTED    FOR    A    FUTURE    DESTINY.        311 

deeply  than  others,  or  interpret  them  into  terms  with 
an  easier  felicity,  they  have  a  strange  supremacy  of 
power.  And  we  never  can  be  satisfied,  unless  anni- 
hilation closes  our  being,  till  we  have  some  sphere 
in  which  to  contemplate  and  unfold  these  ideas.  No 
great  object  in  nature,  the  volcano  or  the  cataract, 
ever  answers  to  our  sense  of  what  is  unspeakable. 
The  sunniest  scene,  or  the  most  terrific  thunder-burst, 
leaves  the  Infinite  suggested  but  unrevealed.  No  work, 
determined  by  the  conditions  of  Time,  can  meet 
this  intimate  longing  of  the  soul.  We  must  wait  for 
a  more  exalted  existence  in  which  to  unfold  this  part 
of  our  being.  And  if  such  an  existence  has  been  pre- 
pared for  us,  then  we  have  in  these  ideas,  not  the 
promises  only,  but  the  rudiments  and  conditions,  of  at- 
tainments whose  unmeasured  height  and  scope  no  hu- 
man thought  is  yet   adequate  to  compute ! 

IV.  But  passing  from  this  point,  with  only  this 
slight  and  incidental  allusion,  I  come  to  another, 
which  it  is  very  important  for  us  to  consider  in  con- 
nection with  our  theme.     It  is  that  the  Soul  has  power 

EVEN   NOW   TO   ACT   IN    ENTIRE    INDEPENDENCE   OF   THE     BoDY  ; 

and  that  usually,  as  its  action  becomes  higher  and  more 

POWERFUL,    IT    becomes    PROPORTIONABLY   UNMINDFUL    OF   THE 

Body,  and  freed  from  conscious  connection  with  this. 
The  bearing  of  this  fact  on  our  present  course  of 
thought  you  will  instantly  discern. 


*• 


312  THEHUMANSOUL, 

Admitting  all  that  has  been  previously  said,  as  to 
the  innate  tendency  of  the  soul  to  realize  an  ever- 
new  developement  and  ascension,  as  to  its  natural  su- 
premacy over  circumstances,  and  its  possession  of 
ideas  that  seem  to  prophesy  a  Future  experience,  and 
to  prepare  us  for  indefinite  progress  therein, — ^it  may 
still  be  maintained  that  all  these  are  characteristic 
of  the  soul  while  it  is  in  the  Body ;  that  they  may  be 
conditioned  upon  that  connection;  and  that  at  any 
rate  they  give  us  no  promise,  considered  by  them- 
selves, as  to  what  shall  come  to  pass  when  this  con- 
nection has  been  finally  terminated,  and  the  body, 
which  was  the  house  of  the  soul,  has  been  dissolved 
from  around  it.  It  becomes  therefore  a  fact  of  prime 
importance,  in  connection  with  our  discussion,  this 
which  I  have  indicated :  that  the  soul  often  now 
acts  independently  of  the  body;  that  its  most  splen- 
did  activity  is  usually  put  forth  when  the  body  is  no- 
wise helpful  to  it;  and  that  just  in  proportion  as  its 
action  is  more  concentrated  and  energetic,  it  forgets 
and  overlooks  the  whole  physical  structure. — It  thus 
shows  itself  fitted,  by  original  organization,  to  act 
without  and  above  the  body.  It  gives  an  additional 
and  an  inspiring  promise,  if  not  that  there  is  a  Fu- 
ture before  it,  after  the  physical  structure  has  de- 
cayed, at  least  than  in  such  a  Future,  if  that  comes, 
it    will    be    fitted    to    use    its    innate    powers    with 


CONSTITUTED    FOR    A    FUTUPwE    DESTINY.        313 

even  unprecedented  vigor  and  effect.  And  with  the 
rapid  expansion  of  this  thought  I  shall  close  the  dis- 
cussion. I  could  not  go  further,  without  looking  out- 
side of  the  Constitution  of  the  Soul,  and  calling  to 
our  assistance  the  positive  declarations  and  promises 
of  the  Scriptures.  To  these  I  may  refer  you,  but 
uppn  them  I  cannot  here  properly  enter. 

The  phenomena  of  Dreams  are  important  and  sig- 
nificant in  connection  with  this  department  of  our 
subject.  Of  themselves,  almost,  they  set  before  us  the 
fact  I  have  adverted  to.  Consider  these  phenomena! 
The  body  lies,  in  statue-like  repose.  Worn  out  with 
labors,  and  resting  to  gain  fresh  vigor  for  their  re- 
newal, it  is  utterly  unaware  of  all  around  it.  .  No 
one  of  the  physical  senses  is  open.  The  very  capa- 
city of  receiving  impressions  seems  quite  to  have 
passed  from  the  impassive  frame.  Strike  it,  pinch  it, 
cut  it,  call  to  it,  and  still  you  do  not  alarm  or  arouse 
it.  It  lies  as  before,  lethargic,  numb.  Except  for 
the  regular  repeat  of  the  pulses,  and  for  that  invol- 
untary action  of  the  lungs  which  is  not  intermitted, 
you  would  say  that  it  was  dead.  It  will  hardly  be 
more  impervious  to  impression  than  while  this  state 
lasts,  more  utterly  prostrate  and  unresponsive,  when  it 
is  laid  in  the  grave.  Its  sleep  is,  indeed,  as  the  an- 
cients described  it,  '  the  brother  of  Death.' 

And    yet    the    mind,    unwearied    and    alert,    not 


314  THEHUMANSOUL, 

cramped  or  constrained  by  this  dulness  of  the  body, 
only  let  forth  indeed  to  a  more  free  excursiveness  by 
the  transient  sealing  up  of  each  physical  sense,  roams 
out  every  whither,  in  its  argument  and  its  thought. 
It  plans  disquisitions,  dramas,  histories ;  it  grapples 
with  and  explicates  the  problems  of  geometry;  it  ap- 
plies, with  an  intuition  which  is  sharper  than  induction, 
the  mixed  mathematics,  in  their  diverse  applications. 
It  sings  to  itself,  with  a  more  ethereal  and  triumph- 
ant utterance  than  it  ever  could  attain  while  con- 
scious of  the  body.  Its  invention  is  quick  in 
plastic  art.  It  feels  such  love  for  kindred  and  friends, 
for  children,  for  the  absent,  as  almost  never  inspired 
it  before;  a  love  so  tremulous,  eager,  tearful,  that  it 
sometimes  stirs  and  wakens  the  frame  with  its  throb- 
bing pulsations.  It  goes  out  over  seas, — this  keen- 
eyed,  liberated,  exulting  Soul, — and  views  before  it, 
as  in  actual  presence,  the  tropic  islands,  exuberant 
with  their  wealth  of  flowers  and  foliage,  and  rever- 
berating the  roll  of  the  surf  on  the  coral-reef;  or  it 
hovers,  with  shivering  and  stimulated  sense,  through 
the  auroral  North,  and  traces  the  track  of  a  disap- 
pearing chivalry  as  this  pierces  the  ice-mountains  in 
quest  of  the  pole. 

There  is  no  sphere  of  action,  from  the  slave-ship  to 
the  throne-room,  there  is  no  sphere  of  life,  on  the 
earth   or   in    the  skies,   that   does   not  seem  open  to 

♦ 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    315 

the  access  of  the  Soul,  when  the  body  has  been  be- 
numbed by  sleep,  and  the  mind  has  been  loosened  to 
the  ecstasy  of  dreams.  The  memory,  the  judgment, 
the  imagination,  the  fancy,  the  affectionate  sensibility, 
the  conscience  itself,  become  strangely  exhilarated  and 
energized  in  this  state.  And  all  that  the  soul  wants, 
it  would  sometimes  appear,  is  to  have  that  state  made 
perfect  and  permanent,  to  have  its  own  activity  en- 
tu'ely  dissociated  from  that  of  the  body,  in  order  to 
gain  the  utmost  inspiration,  and  an  unlimited  range. 
It  is  never  so  winged,  so  intuitive,  so  discursive,  so 
surcharged  with  thought,  so  keenly  alive  to  every 
passion,  as  when  the  body  is  passive  and  dumb,  and 
altogether  forgotten.  It  then  vivifies  the  Past;  in- 
corporates the  ideal ;  sets  aU  actual  forces  in  new  com- 
binations ;  anticipates  the  Future ;  and  treads  with 
fleet  and  noiseless  foot  aerial  regions.  It  feels  a  rap- 
ture preluding  Heaven.  It  is  mastered  by  an  an- 
guish which  hath  the  element  of  HeU  in  it.  The 
Universe  melts  before  its  view,  and  leaves  it  face  to 
face  with  God  ! 

I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  this  is  universally 
the  experience  of  the  dreamer.  But  it  sometimes  is. 
And  in  every  such  instance  is  found  unanswerable 
demonstration  of  the  fact,  that  the  action  of  the  Soul 
is  not  conditioned,  for  its  promptness,  its  power,  or 
its  intensity,  on  the  conscious    connection   between  it 


316 


and  the  body.  It  may  act  most  vividly,  while  the 
body  is  utterly  passive  and  insensible.  It  may  leave 
this  forgotten  behind  it,  and  be  itself  only  freer  in 
its  range,  and  clearer  in  its  outlook,  when  it  has  no 
longer  to  act  through  the  senses. 

Nor  are  these  the  only  admitted  phenomena  which 
set  this  principle  evidently  before  us;  which  show 
how  deep  and  radical  is  the  diversity  between  the 
body  and  the  spirit,  and  how  possible  it  is  for  the 
latter  to  be  triumphantly  active  while  unaided  by 
the  former.  There  are  cases  in  which  disease  strikes 
the  frame,  and  prostrates  all  its  physical  forces,  with- 
out interfering  with  the  soul's  operation.  In  catalepsy 
for  instance, — the  Seizing,  as  its  Greek  name  de- 
scribes it, — there  is  a  sudden  suspension  both  of 
sensation  and  of  voluntary  motion.  A  universal  spas- 
modic disease  masters  the  organs  of  locomotion ;  so 
that  the  arm  or  the  limb  wiU  remain  in  any  posture, 
however  unnatural,  in  which  it  is  placed.  The  senses 
are  usually  entirely  sealed,  of  no  more  avail  than 
if  they  were  obliterated.  And  the  continued  pulsa- 
tion, with  the  warmth  which  this  maintains  in  the 
system,  are  the  only  indications  that  life  remains. 
Yet  there  have  been  authentic  instances  in  which  the 
mind,  thus  shrouded  from  sight,  instead  of  being  de- 
stroyed, impaired,  or  even  limited,  in  its  central  force, 
has  been  stimulated  to   a  more   amazing  activity,  by 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    317 

being  thus  crowded  as  it  were  into  a  comer  of  its 
realm ;  and  has  feared  and  agonized,  or  has  triumphed 
and  exulted,  with  a  vividness  of  experience  altogether 
unaccustomed.  A  new  and  wondrous  sensibility  has 
been  developed,  in  connection  with  this  temporary 
severance  of  the  soul  from  the  members  of  the  body; 
and  the  'Dead-alive,'  as  such  examples  have  been 
styled,  have  gained  in  these  hours  of  the  forcible  sus- 
pension of  the  functions  of  the  body  what  months  of 
study  could  not  have  brought  them. 

Most  of  you  have  heard  undoubtedly  of  WiUiam 
Tennent,  for  many  years  of  the  last  century  a  faith- 
ful and  intelligent  divine  at  Freehold,  New  Jersey ; 
and  the  narrative  of  his  singular  aflPection  in  early 
life  may  be  so  familiar  to  you  as  to  save  the  neces- 
*  sity  of  a  full  recital  of  it.  What  the  origin  of  his  dis- 
ease was,  or  what  its  precise  pathology,  it  is  not  needful 
for  us  to  inquire.  I  refer  to  it  only  as  a  psycholo- 
gical fact,  in  harmony  with  the  class  of  facts  upon 
which  I  am  commenting,  and  shedding  clear  light  on 
the  point  before  us.  And  I  take  this,  rather  than 
others  which  are  similar,  because  it  is  palpably  and 
indisputably  authentic,  and  because  all  the  circimi- 
stances  and  experiences  involved  in  it  have  been  por- 
trayed by  his  own  hand,  with  special  minuteness  and 
fulness  of  detail.  It  establishes  the  principle,  I  think, 
beyond  denial,  that  the  Soul  may  act  independently 


318 


of  the  body,  and  may  gain  its  utmost  elevation  of 
feeling,  its  highest  pitch  of  spiritual  vision,  when  that 
has  ceased  to   render  it  assistance. 

By  excessive  devotion  to  theological  studies,  Mr. 
Tennent  had  well-nigh  sacrificed  his  life ;  his  health 
had  become  frail,  and  his  spirits  depressed ;  when  sud- 
denly, in  an  instant,  he  seemed  to  expire.  Apparently 
no  sensibility  or  pulsation  was  left  in  the  frame.  The 
day  was  appointed,  and  had  arrived,  for  his  funeral; 
and  the  preparations  for  the  service  were  nearly  com- 
pleted, when  a  young  physician,  his  intimate  friend, 
who  thought  the  death-cold  not  yet  sufficiently  marked 
upon  the  body,  procured  by  his  urgency  a  postpone- 
ment of  the  burial,  till  effort  should  be  tried  to  pro- 
duce resuscitation.  All  possible  means  and  appliances 
were  employed,  to  revive  the  passive  frame ;  but  none 
seemed  in  any  degree  to  avail.  And  it  was  not  till 
the  very  close  of  the  interval  which  had  been  al- 
lowed, when  again  the  funeral  ceremonies  were  on 
the  point  of  commencing,  and  the  moment  had  al- 
most come  for  enclosing  the  body  in  its  last  earthly 
tenement,  that  signs  of  revival  began  to  be  perceived. 
Then  the  prostrate  man  suddenly  opened  his  eyes, 
and  spoke;  and  after  further  and  strenuous  exertions 
he  was  finally  recovered  from  what  for  so  many 
hours  and  days  had  seemed  the  very  Sleep  of  Death. 
At  first,  his  memory  of  what  had   transpired  before 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   319 

his  seizure  seemed  to  have  vanished.  It  was  months 
before  he  fully  recovered,  either  in  body  or  in 
mind,  from  the  effect  of  this  long  and  singular  pause 
in  the  functions  of  the  body.  But  when  he  did,  he 
gave  to  a  friend,  by  whom  it  was  published,  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  what  had  occurred  in  his  mental 
experience  during  this   trance  : — 

^  While  I  was  conversing  with  my  brother,'  said 
he,  'on  the  state  of  my  soul,  and  the  fears  I  had 
entertained  for  my  future  welfare,  I  found  myself  in 
an  instant  in  another  state  of  existence,  under  the 
direction  of  a  superior  Being,  who  ordered  me  to  fol- 
low him.  I  was  accordingly  wafted  along,  I  know 
not  how,  tiU  I  beheld  at  a  distance  an  ineffable 
Glory;  the  impression  of  which  on  my  soul  it  is  im- 
possible to  communicate  to  mortal  mind.  I  immedi- 
ately reflected  on  my  happy  change,  and  thought : 
'  Well,  blessed  be  God !  I  am  safe  at  last,  not- 
withstanding aU  my  fears !'  I  saw  an  innumerable 
host  of  happy  beings,  surrounding  the  inexpressible 
Glory,  in  acts  of  adoration  and  joyous  worship;  but 
I  did  not  see  any  bodily  shape  or  representation,  in 
the  glorious  appearance.  I  heard  things  unutterable. 
I  heard  their  songs  and  hallelujahs,  with  unspeakable 
rapture.  I  felt  joy  unutterable,  and  full  of  glory. 
I  then  applied  to  my  conductor,  and  requested  leave 
to  join  the   happy   throng;    on   which   he   tapped   on 


320 


my  shoulder,  and  said :  ^  You  must  return  to  the 
Earth!'  This  seemed  like  a  sword  through  my 
heart.  In  an  instant  I  recollect  to  have  seen  my 
brother  standing  before  me,  disputing  with  the  doc- 
tor. The  three  days,  through  which  I  appeared  life- 
less, seemed  to  me  not  more  than  twenty  minutes. 
The  idea  of  returning  to  this  world  of  sorrow  and 
trouble  gave  me  such  a  shock  that  I  fainted  repeat- 
edly.' 

And  afterwards  he  added  :  '  Such  was  the  effect 
on  my  mind  of  what  I  had  seen  and  heard,  that  if 
it  be  possible  for  a  human  being  to  live  entirely 
above  the  world,  and  the  things  of  it,  I  was  that 
person.  The  ravishing  sounds  of  the  songs  and  hal- 
lelujahs that  I  had  heard,  and  the  very  words  that 
were  uttered,  were  not  out  of  my  ears,  when  awake, 
for  at  least  three  years.  *  *  *  Every  thing  else 
appeared  so  .completely  vain  when  compared  to 
Heaven,  that  could  I  have  had  the  world  for  stoop- 
ing down  for  it,  I  believe  I  should  not  have  thought 
of  doing  it !' 

As  I  said  at  the  commencement  of  this  remarkable 
narrative,  what  the  physical  causes  or  nature  of  this 
trance  may  have  been,  is  not  important  to  our  present 
purpose.  That  such  a  suspension  of  the  powers  of 
the  body,  and  such  an  accompanying  intense  activity 
of  the  powers  of  the  soul,  did  actually  occur,  no  man 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   321 

who  values  his  credit  for  candor  will  venture  to  deny. 
And  so  much  as  this  is  demonstrated  by  it :  that  the 
Soul  has  capacity  for  the  most  exalted  and  vivid  op- 
eration, when  the  help  of  the  Body  is  utterly  with- 
drawn from  it.  It  may  gain  visions,  hear  voices, 
accomplish  processes  of  thought  and  of  utterance,  be 
sensible  of  a  rapturous  and  unspeakable  joy,  while  the 
body  is  dumb,  motionless,  insensible,  apparently  only 
fit  for  the  burial.  And  if  it  may  do  this  in  the  cases 
where  after  all  the  body  is  revived,  the  soul  appearing 
to  come  back  to  it  after  an  absence,  the  presumption 
rises  almost  to  certainty  that  it  may  do  the  same 
thing  when  the  body  is  finally  and  beyond  recall  dis- 
solved; that  after  the  Soul  has  been  altogether  re- 
leased and  dislodged  from  this  mortal  frame,  it  may 
still  retain  and  employ  its  powers,  finding  room  for 
their  further  and  swifter  advancement,  and  matching 
them  with  more  august  companions  and  more  glori- 
ous circumstances,  in  a  Future  state  of  being ! — I  see 
no  way  of  evading  this  conclusion.  And  I  see  not 
how  any  man,  conscious  of  the  dignity  and  the  per- 
manence of  his  powers,  should  desire  to  evade  it. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  such  cases  as  these  are 
rare  and  extraordinary,  and  that  more  or  less  of  Dis- 
ease enters  into  them;  so  that  they  fail  to  justify  a 
conclusion  which  shall  be  general  and  trustworthy. 
I  cannot  admit  that  this   answer  is  pertinent;  or  that 

21 


322 

the  disease  which  affects  the  body  partially,  suspend- 
ing its  usual  functions  for  a  season,  is  different  in  the 
relation  which  it  sustains  to  the  soul  from  that  se- 
verer and  completer  disease  which  shall  affect  the 
body  fully,  and  suspend  forever  its  whole  operation. 
Still,  it  may  further  assist  and  'enlighten  us,  to  con- 
sider what  is  also  and  as  clearly  true  :  that  the  Soul, 
*^  in  its  intensest  activity,  tends  always  to  forget  and 
OVERLOOK  THE  BODY,  and  to  act  in  entire  independence 
of  it. — Precisely  as  it  is  more  thoroughly  occupied, 
more  copiously  and  profoundly  active,  it  becomes  un- 
mindful of  the  physical  structure.  And  when  it  is 
recalled  to  the  recognition  of  that,  the  evidence  is 
given  us,  in  this  very  fact,  that  its  first  and  highest 
impulse  has  abated.  This  demonstrates,  does  it  not? 
that  its  connection  with  the  body  is  only  a  present 
accident  of  the  Soul,  not  essential  to  its  substantial 
being  or  power ;  and  that  it  may  act  in  the  loftiest 
methods  when  altogether  dissevered  from  that. 

The  anecdote  is  a  familiar  one  in  the  history  of 
Painting,  of  the  artist  employed  upon  the  frescoes  of 
a  dome,  who  stepped  back  to  see  from  a  better 
point  of  view  the  work  which  he  had  done,  and  became 
so  absorbed  in  comparing  the  scenes  which  he  had 
depicted  with  the  forming  idea  as  it  lay  in  his  mind, 
that  still  proceeding  backward  he  had  reached  the 
edge  of  the  lofty  scaffolding,  when  a  pupil,  observing 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   323 

his  instant  peril,  and  afraid  even  to  shout  to  him, 
rushed  forward  and  marred  the  figures  with  his 
trowel,  so  calling  back  and  saving  the  Master.  The 
mind,  engrossed  in  its  own  operation,  had  forgotten 
the  body,  and  was  treating  it  as  carelessly  as  the 
boy  treats  the  chip  which   he  tosses  on  the   wave. 

It  is  another  prized  tradition  of  the  art,  that  when 
Leonardo  was  painting  that  master-piece  of  the  Last 
Supper  which  the  art  of  the  engraver  has  made  fa- 
miliar in  all  our  dwellings,  and  which  has  given  to 
his  name  a  kind  of  Christian  consecration,  he  paused 
before  attempting  the  head  of  the  Saviour,  unable 
clearly  to  present  to  his  fancy  his  own  ideal.  But 
at  last,  at  evening,  amid  the  inspiring  vesper-song  of 
the  chapel,  while  he  sat 

"Immantled  in  ambrosial  Dark," 

as  voices  and  or^n  conspired  to  pour  their  rapture 
on  the  air,  his  imagination  was  aroused  to  its  highest 
activity,  and  a  Divine  head  seemed  to  float  before 
him  in  luminous  glory.  Then,  hastening  to  his  room, 
he  transferred  the  majestic  vision  to  the  canvass. 
Unconscious  of  the  hours,  he  wrought  all  night;  and 
in  the  morning  the  work  was  done,  done  for  all  Time ! 
Whether  the  incident  be  or  be  not  historically  au- 
thenticated, is  not  important  to  our  discussion.  If  it 
be  not,  then  the  fact  ot  the  pr^ivalence.  of  such  a  tra- 


824  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

dition,  which  no  one  will  deny,  bears  yet  more 
strongly  on  the  progress  of  the  argument.  For  it 
shows  the  impression,  wide-spread  and  influential, 
cresting  in  this  case  into  a  definite  historical  rumor, 
that  a  work  so  great,  involving  the  noblest  operation 
of  the  soul,  could  only  have  been  accomplished  when 
the  body  was  forgotten,  and  had  ceased  to  assist  it. 

So  the  long  dream  of  Coleridge,  a  small  fragment 
of  which  only  is  preserved  to  us  in  his  works,  in  those 
lines  familiar  to  all  his  readers, 

"In  Xanadu  did  Kubla  Khan 

A  stately  pleasure-dome  decree,"  &c., 

came  to  him,  you  know,  and  bodied  itself  forth  in  a 
musical  utterance,  amid  the  keen  exhilaration  of  mind 
induced  by  opium.  '  All  the  images  rose  before  him 
as  things,  with  a  parallel  production  of  the  corres- 
pondent expressions,  without  any  sensation,  or  con- 
sciousness of  effort.'  Being  afterward  recalled  to 
practical  cares  by  the  entrance  of  some  one  on  an 
errand  of  business,  he  was  never  able  to  renew  any 
part  of  it  beyond  the  brief  fragment  which  he  had 
already  written.  The  mind  at  work  in  voluntary  op- 
eration, could  not  reproduce  the  height  and  the  viv- 
idness of  the  vision  which  had  been  given  it  in  its 
hour  of  excitement.  Unmindful  of  the  body,  so  long 
as  its    own    exaltation  lasted,    when    recalled   to    its 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    325 

connection  with  the  sensible  organs  it  abandoned  its 
pinnacle ! 

So  have  all  of  us,  doubtless,  observed  the  same 
thing,  expressed  with  more  or  less  fulness  and  force 
in  our  personal  experience.  The  lawyer,  the  physi- 
cian, the  inventor,  the  mathematician, — each  one,  when 
intent  and  absorbed  upon  his  study,  exploring  with 
kindled  and  eager  thought  some  element  of  knowl- 
edge essential  to  his  success,  becomes  for  the  time 
forgetful  of  the  body.  Its  wants  cease  to  trouble 
him,  its  habits  to  arrest  him,  or  its  pleasures  to  please 
him.  He  is  almost  as  careless  of  it  as  if  already  the 
ai'dent  soul  were  disparted  from  it,  and,  inheriting  the 
privilege  of  spirits  disembodied,  were  freed  from  the 
bonds  of  space  and  of  time.  It  is  so,  too,  with  the 
merchant,  planning  an  enterprise  which  is  intricate  and 
complex,  but  which  if  carried  out  will  enrich  him 
with  its  rewards.  It  is  so  with  every  most  eminent 
thinker,  most  successful  explorer,  or  most  careful  cal- 
culator; in  a  word,  with  every  one  whose  intellect  or 
whose  affections,  on  any  theme,  by  any  fact,  are  thor- 
oughly engaged. 

We  have  felt  this  ourselves,  I  cannot  doubt;  in 
our  intense  action,  of  hope  or  of  dread,  of  delight  or 
of  agony ;  as  we  have  hung,  with  every  faculty  con- 
centred upon  the  sight,  over  the  couch  of  the  failing 
friend;   as  we  have  entered  the  supremest  experience 


326  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

of  an  unusual  joy.  The  hours  have  then  seemed 
moments  to  us,  or  the  moments  have  seemed  hours. 
We  have  ceased  to  reckon  time  by  the  hands  on  the 
clock-face.  The  conscious  Soul  has  been  its  own  hor- 
ologe. The  long  or  the  brief  experience  has  been 
to  it  but  one  intense  consuming  Now ;  that  may 
have  been  minutes,  that  might  have  been  ages.  The 
soul  has  no  more  remembered  the  body,  and  has  no 
more  depended  on  it,  in  this  uttermost  grief,  or  this 
ecstasy  of  delight,  than  if  the  body  had  never  per- 
tained to  it,  or  were  now  in  possession  of  some  other 
mind.  Independence  on«  the  body  has  thus  been 
shown  its  native  prerogative.  And  the  prophecy  has 
been  revealed,  in  this  its  own  fearful  and  wonderful 
frame,  of  the  period  yet  to  come,  when  intensest  self- 
consciousness  and  extremest  activity  shall  be  united 
in  it  with  final  separation  from  relations  to  matter ; 
when  its  spiritual  forces,  disconnected  from  any  such 
physical  structure,  with  native  supremacy  over  all 
outward  accidents,  shall  agonize  or  shall  triumph  as 
it  never  could  before ! 

It  is  natural  and  fit,  too,  before  closing  this  train 
of  thought,  to  refer  to  those  very  remarkable  in- 
stances, detailed  by  physiologists,  in  which  the  soul 
not  only  forgets  and  overlooks  the  body,  but  acts  in 
positive  disregard  of  it,  and  in  what  seems  to  us  a 
direct  violation  of  its  usual  laws. — I   do   not  propose 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    327 

to  enter,  of  course,  upon  any  discussion  of  doubtful 
instances  of  either  magnetic  or  somnambulic  action ; 
nor  to  assume,  any  further  than  I  am  warranted  by 
the  agreement  of  scientific  men,  any  principles  or  the- 
ories concerning  such  instances  as  are  fully  authenti- 
cated. But  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  I  think,  by 
any  one  who  has  given  the  subject  a  careful  atten- 
tion, that  there  are  certain  cases — abnormal,  if  we 
elect  to  call  them  so,  but  actual  still,  and  suggestive 
of  possible  forces  and  laws  not  yet  revealed  to  us — 
in  which  the  mind,  by  an  exertion  of  its  force  to 
us  marvelous  and  bewildering,  surpasses  and  super- 
cedes the  action  of  the  body,  and  shows  itself  inde- 
pendent of  the  ordinary  rules  and  media  of  vision. 
The  body  is  not  diseased ;  but  the  soul  is  intensely, 
extra-naturally  stimulated,  either  by  an  energy  self- 
developing  within  it,  like  a  geyser  bursting  out  and 
boiling  amid  snows,  or  by  the  exertion  of  an  extra- 
neous force  descending  upon  it,  until  the  eye  becomes 
no  longer  a  needed  auxiliary  to  its  discernment  of 
matter,  and  even  the  presence  of  light  upon  the 
object  is  not  required. 

In  the  instance  of  Jane  Rider,  for  example,  of 
whose  remarkable  exhibitions  of  this  mental  state  a 
detailed  account  was  published  several  years  since, 
and  to  whom.  Prof.  Oliver  particularly  refers  in  his 
elaborate    Lectures    on    Physiology,    the    eyes    were 


328  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

closed,  and  were  covered  with  thick  and  impenetra- 
ble bandages.  All  lights  were  removed  from  the 
room,  and  the  windows  were  so  secured  that  no  ob- 
ject was  discernible.  Yet  her  mind,  through  this  oc- 
cult and  startling  power,  discerned  and  read  what  she 
had  never  seen  before,  and  what  the  eye  of  another 
in  the  room,  though  opened  upon  it,  could  not  have 
seen.  The  soul  made  the  body  transparent  before  it, 
it  made  the  darkness  bright  around  it,  by  its  .  own 
strange  illuminating  power;  so  that  the  eminent  phys- 
iologist I  have  referred  to  has  truly  said  :  "  It  is  im- 
possible to  doubt  that  in  such  cases  [this,  and  the*  like, 
where  the  eye  is  utterly  covered  up]  they  still  en- 
joy the  power  of  Vision." 

That  such  an  unusual  and  amazing  mental  state 
can  be  reproduced  at  pleasure,  that  it  is  either  usu- 
ally or  frequently  produced  by  the  operators  who  pro- 
fess to  exhibit  it  for  gain,  I  have  no  idea.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  in  far  the 
larger  proportion  of  cases  in  which  the  existence  of 
such  a  state  is  asserted — the  feigned  being  to  the 
real,  perhaps,  as  thousands  to  one, — the  pretence  at 
exhibiting  it  is  a  conscious  charlatanry,  and  the  spec- 
tators are  entertained  by  skilful  gymnastics  or  by 
legerdemain,  instead  of  being  brought  to  instant  prox- 
imity with  this  august  power,  which  comes  only  as  it  is 
sent  to   the    soul,   but    which    when  it   comes    seems 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   329 

well-nigh  supernal!  But  that  such  a  power  is  some- 
times manifested,  that  the  state  of  being  which  I 
have  described  is  occasionally  induced,  by  unexplained 
causes — induced,  too,  quite  as  often  among  the  ilUter- 
ate  as  among  the  cultivated — cannot,  I  think,  be  rea- 
sonably doubted.  And  the  judgment  of  the  world 
•has  set  in  this  direction,  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  with  a  steadiness  and  a  strength  which  seem 
to  give  no  promise  of  a  re-action.  The  chief  danger 
now  is,  that  men  will  too  lightly  assume  the  presence 
of  such  a  state,  and  be  cheated  by  the  tricks  of 
those  who  simulate  it,  not  that  they  will  be  moved 
to  deny  its  possibility. 

And  what  light  does  this  cast,  and  all  these  classes 
of  cases  which  I  have  cited,  on  the  power  of  the  Soul 
to  act  hereafter  in  independence  of  the  Body;  and, 
after  that  has  been  dissolved,  to  still  go  forward  in 
the  grandest  career!  Ah,  my  friends,  it  seems  to 
me  that  to  doubt  this  power,  and  to  reason  against 
it,  were  like  reasoning  against  the  rings  of  Saturn 
because  the  unaided  eye  does  not  catch  them;  or 
like  reasoning  against  the  cartoons  of  Raphael  be- 
cause our  fingers  are  not  competent  to  draw  them! 
"Persons  of  very  ordinary  capacity,"  says  the  same 
author  from  whom  I  have  just  quoted,  "seem  to  ac- 
quire by  this  influence  a  keenness  of  perception,  a 
strength  of  judgment,  and  a  vividness  of  imagination, 


330 


which  forms  a  striking  contrast  with  their  usual  me- 
diocrity of  talent  and  temperament.  Every  thing  is 
dignified  and  embellished  by  the  power  of  their 
minds.  They  paint  objects  in  the  most  brilliant  col- 
ors, and  they  display  a  power  of  eloquence  and  a 
richness  of  language,  wholly  disproportioned  to  their 
ordinary  ability  and  habit   of  mind." 

Who  shall  believe,  then,  that  the  soul  is  depend- 
ent for  its  power  of  action  on  connection  with  the 
body?  Who  shall  doubt,  that  when  all  the  senses 
and  forces  of  the  body  have  been  finally  sealed  by 
the  coming  of  Death,  the  Soul  may  still  live,  that  by 
its  constitution  it  is  fitted  to  live,  supreme  and  young, 
in  that  disembodied  state?  still  putting  forth  its  pow- 
ers, stiU  discerning  distant  objects,  and  moving  amid 
the  new  scenes  opened  to  it  with  a  grander  scope 
and  dignity  of  faculty,  and  an  intenser  self-conscious- 
ness, than  it  ever  knew  before  ? — I  trace  the  river, 
swelling  out  by  degrees  from  the  spring  to  a  rill, 
from  the  rill  to  a  brook,  from  the  brook  to  a  mill- 
stream,  from  the  stream  to  a  river,  taking  into  itself 
all  minor  tributaries,  and  rolling  on  with  a  current 
that  bears  the  ship  and  the  steamboat  with  the  ea- 
siest majesty,  still  cleaving  its  way  through  meadow 
and  hill,  through  forest  and  mountain,  untroubled  to- 
ward the  sea.  Shall  I  believe,  then,  that  when  that 
river   has   rounded   a   promontory,    beyond   which,   as 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.   331 

yet,  I  cannot  follow  it,  it  is  all  at  once  dissolved  into 
mist  ?  or  emptied  into  a  cavern  so  deep  and  obscure 
that  no  trace  of  the  stream  re-appears  upon  the  earth  ? 
Nay,  but  I  know, — though  I  have  not  seen  the  end,  it 
is  as  certain  to  me  as  if  already  my  vision  embraced  it, 
— that  that  river  flows  on  continuous  to  the  ocean,  and 
mingles  its  wave  with  all  the  waters  that  gird  the 
globe,  and  are  drawn  into  the  skies ! 

And  so  I  know  that  the  great  Soul  of  Man,  as- 
piring from  its  birth  to  a  nobler  developement,  still 
matching  its  companions,  still  surpassing  its  circum- 
stances, with  ideas  within  it  which  no  Present  can 
unfold,  and  with  a  deep  self-centred  force,  to  which 
the  body  is  only  an  accident,  will  still  go  on  when 
this  body  has  decayed,  and  be  only  nobler  and  prince- 
lier  in  each  power  when  mingling  with  that  illustri- 
ous concourse  of  intelligent  and  pure  beings  who 
already  have  been  gathered  in  the  courts  of  the  Fu- 
ture !  It  were  to  reverse  and  violently  over-ride  every 
palpable  probability,  to  deny  or  to  doubt  this  ! 

Of  course  this  Future,  philosophy  herself  instructs 
us,  shall  not  be  one  of  progress  and  peace  to  the  per- 
sonal Soul,  unless  this  has  here  been  prepared  for  such 
goods,  by  the  right  and  appropriate  use  of  its  pow- 
ers ;  by  having  gained  Knowledge ;  by  having  realized 
the  precepts  of  Virtue,  and  been  inspired  with  its 
Divine    spirit;   by  having   wrought   the  Works  which 


332  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

these  indicate ;  by  having  sought  pure  and  spiritual 
Happiness,  rather  than  physical  indulgence  or  pleas- 
ure. The  soul  that  has  here  been  darkened  by  ig- 
norance, corrupted  by  vice,  enfeebled  by  an  inert 
waste  of  its  powers,  and  passionately  excited  or  sensu- 
ally intoxicated,  not  filled  with  spiritual  gladness  and 
peace — will  find  the  Future,  according  to  all  the  laws 
of  its  constitution,  a  realm  of  darkness,  mingled  with 
fire !  And  its  loss  will  be  the  greater,  its  failure 
more  terrific,  as  the  gain  which  contrasts  this  is  more 
eminent  and  grand  ! — But  if  the  soul  hath  here  em- 
ployed its  powers  aright,  according  to  the  law  and 
design  of  its  Maker,  and  is  thus  affectionately  related 
to  Him,  and  sympathetically  allied  with  all  pure  Be- 
ings who  are  gathered  around  him,  it  is  fitted,  indis- 
putably, in  the  frame  of  its  being,  to  realize  a  Destiny 
amid  the  cycles  of  the  Future  which  the  unassisted 
thought  of  man  has  never  yet  been  able  to  grasp; 
which  the  harps  of  perfect  and  glorified  spirits  alone 
can  utter ;  and  which  Immortality  shall  not  be  too  vast 
to  unfold  and  augment! 

It  was  a  vain  and  frivolous  work  to  which  Angelo 
was  once  put;  to  raise  a  statue  of  Snow!  Not  snow 
but  Marble,  that  should  last  through  the  ages,  preserv- 
ing his  thought  and  representing  his  genius,  was  the 
fitting  material  for  his  magnificent  mind.  And  the 
acclaim  of  ages  approves  his  selection.      No   frivolous 


^> 


CONSTITUTED    FOR    A    FUTURE    DESTINY.      333 

or  short-sighted  worker  is  God  !  And  when  He  builds, 
with  such  curious  skill,  with  such  infinite  power,  the 
statue  of  the  Soul,  and  makes  this  live,  as  Angelo  could 
not  the  marble  which  he  carved,  He  does  it  for  Eter- 
nity !  Those  cycles,  beside  which  our  ages  are  min- 
utes, shall  attest  His  wisdom ! — May  we  so  live, 
while  life  here  continues,  that  there  at  last  we  shall 
not  only  see,  but  ourselves  exhibit,  the  wisdom  of 
His  choice  1 

My  Friends  :  The  task  I  assumed  is  accomplished, 
and  I  stand  now  at  the  end.  Relieved  and  glad,  yet  also 
regretful,  I  turn  from  the  theme  which  so  long  has 
engaged  us ;  rejoicing  to  have  done  what  I  could 
to  set  it  forth,  amid  many  embarrassments ;  regretting 
to  have  done  this  so  hastily  and  imperfectly.  To 
you,  who  have  listened  so  patiently  here;  to  the  Di- 
rectors of  this  course,  whose  sympathy  and  interest 
have  continually  encouraged  me ;  I  render  my  hearty 
and  earnest  thanks.  To  the  theme  itself,  I  offer  again, 
as  I  now  pass  from  it,  the  tribute  of  unfeigned  admi- 
ration and  love  !  Indeed,  it  is  a  great  one  !  That 
which  is  highest  in  the  terrestrial  system ;  that  which 
surveys,  governs,  completes,  all  things  around  us ; 
that  which  has  prophecies  of  a  Future  upon  it; — 
this,  it  has  been  my  office  to  exhibit,  as  the  first 
in    this    series    of    Annual    Lecturers.       Many   other 


334 

themes  may  be  more  novel  than  this,  and  more  en- 
tertaining. No  other,  coming  within  the  range  of  these 
Lectures,  can  be  more  high  or  more  rewarding. 
None  other  can  have  a  more  instant  and  practical 
relation  to  ourselves. 

With  all  the  defects  which  have  marked  my  treat- 
ment of  it,  of  which  no  other  can  be  so  keenly  sen- 
sible as  I  am,  certain  great  and  important  facts 
have  been  made,  I  think,  to  appear,  in  the  progress 
of  the  discussion,  concerning  the  Constitution  of  the 
Human  Soul. — It  is  evident,  that  the  Life  which  this 
innately  unfolds,  spiritual,  personal,  and  progressive  as 
it  is,  is  itself  the  grandest  force  that  meets  us  on  the 
arena  of  the  Earth;  more  mystic  and  august,  more 
impossible  of  imitation,  more  truly  transcending  our 
analysis  and  our  thought,  than  any  other  energy 
around  us. — It  is  evident  that  the  Soul,  endowed 
with  this  Life,  is  wisely  and  kindly  prepared  to  gain 
Knowledge ;  being  urged  by  the  instincts,  and  furnished 
with  the  faculties,  which  point  toward  this,  and  which 
make  its  attainment,  if  we  rightly  and  vigorously  use 
our  powers,  a  matter  of  certainty. — It  is  evident  that 
the  Soul  is  equally  endowed  with  the  powers  and 
aptitudes  which  prepare  it  to  gain  Virtue,  and  to  re- 
alize the  absolute  law  of  character  which  our  Maker 
has  expressed  to  us ;  that  if  it  does  not  in  fact  gain 
this  then,  its  own  perverse  preferences,  and  not  His 


CONSTITUTED  FOR  A  FUTURE  DESTINY.    335 

constitution  of  its  spiritual  forces,  are  chargeable  with 
•the  failure. 

It  is  evident,  further,  that  the  Virtuous  and  Benefi- 
cent Operation  upon  others,  and  upon  the  material 
structures  around  us,  in  which  we  know  that  another 
ideal  good  will  be  gained  by  us,  is  made  possible  to 
us.  by  our  careful  constitution ;  that  we  have  not  only 
the  impulses  to  this,  but  the  spiritual  powers  with 
which  to  accomplish  it,  and  a  native  command  over 
all  the  necessary  forces  and  instruments. — It  is  evi- 
dent that  the  Soul,  thus  equipped  for  other  gains 
which  are  grand  and  intrinsic,  is  made  constitution- 
ally capable  of  Happiness,  and  is  fitted  with  marvel- 
ous precision  and  completeness,  in  the  frame  of  its 
being,  to  reach  this  great  and  pure  reward. — And 
now  it  is  evident,  as  the  closing  fact,  which  adds  a 
glory  to  all  the  others,  and  makes  them  reaUy  wor- 
thy our  study,  that  the  Soul,  so  endowed  for  attain- 
ments in  this  life  which  all  must  admire,  is  made 
equally  capable,  by  Him  who  ordains  its  forces  and 
its  laws,  of  reaching  still  higher  possessions  in  the 
Future,  and  of  fulfilling  there  a  most  exalted  and 
illustrious  Destiny.  It  may  fail  to  do  this,  just  as 
it  may  fail  of  accomplishing  any  subordinate  good. 
For  it  is  free ;  and  its  destiny  will  be — so  far  as 
philosophy  gives  us  any  intimation — according  to  the 
use  it  here  makes  of  its  powers.     But  if  it  here  Kves 


336  THE     HUMAN     SOUL, 

wisely,  purely,  with  love  to  God  and  love  to  man 
for  its  animating  spirit,  and  a  constant  employment 
of  its  faculties  for  high  ends  as  its  self-chosen  law, 
then,  when  the  body  has  been  dissolved  from  it,  it 
shall  enter  an  unbounded,  ever-culminating  progress, 
in  the  future  spheres  of  being ;  in  which  knowledge 
shall  be  Vision;  in  which  Virtue  shall  be  spontaneous 
and  perfect ;  in  which  it  shall  accomplish  without  ef- 
fort or  weariness  the  great  Works  of  heaven;  in 
which  its  whole  capacious  sensibility  shall  be  flooded 
with  a  Joy,  each  instant  of  which  shall  be  rapturous 
and  inspiring,  and  the  limit  of  which  Eternity  doth 
not  hold ! 

This  is  true,  and  all  these  several  propositions  are 
true,  not  of  one  soul  only,  or  of  ten,  or  of  a  million. 
They  are  true  of  each  soul  which  God  hath  formed  in 
the  likeness  of  Himself.  However  humble  its  ancestry 
or  its  circumstances,  however  imperfect  its  culture  and 
its  training,  it  holds  these  powers,  and  is  heir  to 
these  prospects.  In  regard  to  his  personal  spiritual 
nature,  the  king  hath  no  innate  supremacy  over  the 
peasant ;  the  slave  and  the  master  stand  side  by  side. 
And  that  little  boy  whom  you  or  I  to-night  passed 
on  the  street, — with  his  keen-faced  want  and  his 
shivering  nakedness  contrasting  our  plenty,  his  un- 
lettered shrewdness  our  knowledge  of  books,  per- 
haps  his   habit   of  greedy  deception  our  habit  of  de- 


CONSTITUTED    FOR    A    FUTURE    DESTINY.        337 

corous  prudence  and  truth — that  little  boy,  if  the 
forces  of  his  nature  shall  ever  gain  harmonious  play, 
and  the  love  of  his  Maker,  the  love  of  his  kind,  be 
inspired  within  him,  may  realize  a  destiny  in  yon 
far-flashing  Future,  before  which  yours  and  mine  shall 
be,  dim !  The  Soul  is  that  which  holds  the  powers 
that  I  have  named ;  and  others  still,  with  dim  foreshad- 
owings,  mystic  moods,  inexplicable  states,  thoughts  that 
'  do  lie  too  deep  for  tears,'  for  their  unsearchable  won- 
drous fruit.  And  the  Soul  is  the  same,  in  its  nature 
and  immortality,  in  each  human  being! 

Is  there  not  then  herein, — I  leave  it  for  the  judgment 
of  each  to  answer  ! — ^is  there  not  found  herein  the  no- 
blest manifestation  we  can  look  for  in  Nature  of  the 
Goodness,  the  Wisdom,  and  the  Power  of  God  ?  Are 
not  His  character,  and  His  infinite  energy,  so  clearly 
revealed  to  us  in  this  frame  of  our  being,  that  other 
studies  may  confirm  and  illustrate,  but  can  never 
overcome,  our  conviction  of  them  ?  Shall  we  not  ren- 
der to  Him  our  worship,  of  the  heart,  of  the  life,  of 
the  glad  obedience  of  every  power?  Shall  we  not, 
if  only  for  this  our  constitution,  forever  hereafter  unite 
in   His  praise  ? 

For  myself,  with  deepest  joy  I  feel,  with  an  inti- 
mate persuasion  that  penetrates  every  thought  do  I 
know  and  feel,  that  He  who  hath  formed  us  as  He 
has  is  incomparably  mighty,  kind,  and  wise!  that  the 

22 


338  THE     HUMAN     SOUL. 

Kght  is  only  the  shadow  of  His  smile,  as  the  thun- 
der is  only  the  whisper  of  His  power !  that  com- 
munion with  Him  shall  be  the  supremest  delight  of 
Eternity!  After  this  grandest  proof  of  His  power, 
and  of  the  character  which  guides  that,  any  other 
of  his  miracles  becomes  conceivable.  It  were  easy  to 
found  the  earth  for  the  pavement  of  this  kingly 
Soul.  It  were  easy  to  rear  the  heavens  for  its  pal- 
ace. Revelation  becomes  intrinsically  probable,  the 
occasion  for  it  being  granted,  to  instruct  and  cherish 
this  Soul  of  Man.  And  no  system  of  grace,  though 
involving  the  mystery  of  Incarnation  itself,  can  be  too 
stupendous  to  build  for  this  a  pathway  to  the  skies. 
Subliming  the  Earth  by  its  presence  upon  it,  encompass- 
ing the  Past  in  the  sweep  of  its  thought,  anticipating  the 
Future  in  the  flight  of  its  desire,  it  overtops  Time, 
and  witnesses  for  God ! 

I  trust  that  we  all,  my  Friends,  shall  cherish  as  we 
ought  the  Soul  within  us  ;  that  we  shall  use  its  powers 
aright  ;  that  we  shall  reach  its  highest  good !  I 
trust  that  we  all  shall  then  study  it  again,  with  still 
enlarged  faculty,  and  with  clarified  insight,  in  the 
spheres  that  ere  long,  if  we  are  pure,  are  to  open 
to  our  ascending  steps  !  And  thanking  you  again  for 
your  patient  attention,  I  bid  you,  as  gathered  in  this 
place  for   this  purpose,  my  final   Farewell  ! 

74^   Of  THB     ^ 

[TJHIVBESITYj 


14  DAY  USE 

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